


Chicken Pox

by TylerM



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bonding, Chicken Pox, Excess amount of fluff, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Liam is sick, Liam-centric, M/M, Poor Liam, Protective Louis, Shy Liam, Sick Fic, Sick Liam, lilo at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 39,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1510076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TylerM/pseuds/TylerM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam doesn't get sick, he's Liam Payne of course he doesn't. Therefore, he doesn't take it very well when he comes down with the Chicken Pox and decides not to tell his bandmates about it. When they find out they are not impressed. </p>
<p>A really fluffy, ridiculous story about Liam coming down the Chicken Pox and his band not dealing with it well. Set around 2011 when One Direction were just starting, shy little Liam with overbearing band mates. Lilo towards the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I wrote this I swear like 2011-2012. Seriously it was ages ago. Its been on tumblr but I've just decided to put in on here for some people. Its actually pretty poorly written, like theirs mistakes and awful grammar but its somewhat okay, readable even... Mostly.   
> So I apologize in advanced if its particularly awful, I'm not going through 39,000 words to proof read. It's just not happening.   
> I was originally written in 15 different parts, thats why its insanely long (i dont even know how I wrote this much) but I've decided to split it into 3 parts (5 chapters per part). That's why its kind of chunky and separated and doesn't always flow.   
> But you know, it mostly makes sense.   
> I hope you enjoy :)

Liam was never one to complain, complaining just wasn’t his thing. He didn’t like to whine or whinge, or have people feeling sorry for him. Because he didn’t need that, he didn’t need them pitying him or anything.

Liam was a big boy, he could take care of himself.

At least that’s what he’d told himself, what he’d learnt to do over the years. All throughout High School Liam had been that kid. The one without any friends, the one people picked on. The smart kid, who was good at track. The scrawny kid, who bullies just attracted themselves to. It was odd really, he could hardly be considered that kid now, now he was the polar opposite.

Then again he had learnt to be the polar opposite. He’d learnt early that giving in to bullies would do nothing but draw them back, and telling on them did nothing but get him beat up in private after school hours. And transferring school had done absolute shit all, because he was still the same kid with no friends, just at a new school with new bullies.

So he’d learnt to look after himself and keep his head the fuck down when he walked the corridors. He’d started boxing which defined him just slightly enough for the bullying to stop around 16, and he’d engrossed himself in his music.

Because fuck the bullies, they weren’t going to stop him from doing what he loved most.

Liam liked to believe his childhood helped mould him into the almost man he was now. Thanks to the bullies he was driven and determined, and didn’t take shit from people, because he learnt they weren’t worth it. He didn’t need to be liked by everyone and certainly didn’t need their approval because they meant nothing.

Sure, thanks to the bullies he could also at times be uncharacteristically introverted and shy, but that was just something that came with being him. He’d always be kind of quiet around new people, it took him a while to warm up to them.

When he did finally warm up to someone though, things changed, because Liam would be your best friend. He’d muck around when called for it, play wrestle when he wanted something, give advice when needed and protect you with his fucking life when necessary. Liam was not only loyal but he was also passionate, if only people had given him more of a chance in High School, then they might have seen it. But people in High School don’t care unless you’re at the top of the food chain, and that food chain was thin and terrifying, so he’d decided early that he didn’t need people who didn’t need him.

He’d only really had one very close friend growing up, and that was Andy Samuels. Unfortunately, they didn’t go to the same high school, but he owed a lot of himself to that boy because he had always been there when he needed him. Besides that the only people he really associated himself with were his family, which in all intents and purposes was a little sad. Don’t get him wrong, Liam was very family orientated. He loved them with everything, his family were at one point the only thing keeping him going, but even he was well aware of how lame hanging out with your mom and sisters on the weekends was.

He was lucky though, because his sisters had always been uncharacteristically nice to him, he’d always felt like he could go to them when he needed anything at all. Nicole and Ruth, while a bit older, always accepted him. They always helped him with homework and hung out with him on weekends, he seriously loved. Granted, they were still his older sisters who liked to tease and torment him at every turn, there close relationship certainly didn’t affect their normal big sister duties. He doesn’t like to recall how many times he had been smothered with satirized, over the top, sloppy kisses and coos of ‘baby brother’ or the amount of times they had forced information out of him with the knowledge that his ribs were just way too sensitive. There were still big sisters after all, he can hardly blame them.

So Liam didn’t feel like he missed out on much of his childhood, he had certainly been quite content with it.

And then the X factor 2010 had happened and everything changed. Honestly, Liam didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing at the time. Because while the other four lads had been absolutely ecstatic to be put in a group, he was sceptical. All these boys were clearly confident and outgoing and cool. Something Liam certainly was not. They were all so loud and friendly, and more than willing to be in a group because they thought it would fun. But all these doubts had instantly entered Liam’s mind because he’d hardly been in a situation where he would have to befriend people like this before, he had no experience being in a group friends.

What if they didn’t like him? Or thought he was a loser? Or didn’t want him in the band? What if they beat him up?

He knew these thoughts were kind of absurd. He wasn’t in High School anymore, he was sure Simon wouldn’t put up with any of that. But still, Liam didn’t know any better. He’d never experienced better from teenage boys, what was he supposed to think?

Of course, these fears had been more then ridiculous when he looked back at it now, because these boys would probably, without thinking put their life on the line for him. Two years later and being put in a band with these four insane lads had been the best thing to ever happen to him. Not only did he have four amazing, best friends, he had four perfect brothers. They were this inane, imperfect family, but they were still a family. They each meant everything to him, while having a special place in his world.

Louis was the ridiculous older brother who liked to just be insane, all the time. He would be the one to make Liam stop acting sensible and just have fun. He brought out the playful, carefree side in Liam whether he liked it or not. If he was being too uptight Louis was at his side, forcing him to relax or be silly. Whether it was by threatening to chuck his brand new nike’s out the window, attacking his sensitive ribs (thanks Ruth) or promising to watch Toy Story with him, it always seemed to work. Louis gave him love bites just to piss him off or forced Liam on his back in a piggy back ride. That was how Louis was, and Liam loved it, because he loved Louis. And then there was this whole other side to the Doncaster lad, the one that Liam honestly preferred a tiny bit more. The quite, sensible, big brother Louis. The one you went to when you needed advice, or having a bad day or someone to just talk to. Because despite his hyperactive personality, Louis was actually rather smart, something most people looked past.

There was Zayn who Liam had pretty much come to worship since being in the band. Liam had honestly been the most wary of him, because Zayn was in all definitions cool, and even looked liked some of the kids that used to beat him up. His first impression of Zayn however couldn’t have been more wrong though, because if anything Zayn was more quiet then him. Zayn wasn’t cool, or tough or anything Liam had expected him to be. Instead he was quite and reserved and maybe even timid. In fact he’d gotten along with the boy the easiest because of their similar personality traits. He found he could easily talk to the boy about anything, nothing was off topic and nothing was awkward. Zayn knew when he needed to talk and he knew when he didn’t need words and just a hug. That was something about Zayn, sometimes they didn’t even need words. Zayn was his rock.

Then there was Niall, who he possibly couldn’t ever imagine his life without, because, well it’s Niall. Niall was his everything. His smile easily brightened his day, he could make Liam happy within an instant. Nialls innocent, but not so innocent nature had Liam torn between wanting to protect him and wanting to party with him, even though he didn’t drink. He felt this urge to protect Niall, keep him from harm’s way even when he knew he didn’t need it. All he wanted was to have the boy wrapped protectively under his arm, but Niall wouldn’t have that. Instead he’d settled for constantly hanging out, watching the boy from afar and protecting him subconsciously. Niall never judged him, never called him boring or uptight, let him do whatever he needed to do. Niall kept him grounded, kept him from going insane some days. Their relationship could hardly be described, because some days he felt like Nialls father, scowling him for being stupid. Others he felt like his best friend, mucking around and being stupid together. And others he felt like Niall was looking after him, making sure he didn’t collapse or something. It was strange, but he wouldn’t change it. He doubted he could if he tried.

And finally there was Harry, who was probably the hardest to define because their relationship was weird. It had taken him a while to get to know Harry, and Liam didn’t want to admit it was because he had been slightly intimated by the younger boy. Harry was confident and collected, and he knew exactly what to do and when to do it. He took control, never hesitated, and that scared Liam a little. They’d easily formed a relationship over the years, but Liam didn’t like to admit he was still in awe of the younger boy sometimes. Liam didn’t particularly like it either, because Harry was younger than him, and he shouldn’t be scared of someone his junior. The perverted younger had grown on him though and he’d learnt that Harry was the go to man on almost anything. He was silly and adorable, while masculine and sturdy. He could get anything he wanted from anyone and Liam admired him for it. He went to Harry when he didn’t want to talk about things, but sit and watch a movie. Or when he wanted to be uncharacteristically unlike himself, do something completely reckless. Their friendship was probably always the hardest to explain, because they butt heads the most. Liam always wanted to be in control, yet Harry was seen as the front man. They both had personalities that clashed occasionally, particularly Liam’s need to look after people and Harry refusing help. Overall they worked well together, and Liam loved him with all his heart.

Liam adored his band, and doing this together was a far better experience then going at it alone. Because Liam had always been alone, and it turned out being around people wasn’t nearly as terrible as he deemed it. Not with the boys he’d been put with at least, if it had been 4 other guys it might not have worked.

They were meant to be together, they were meant to be a band.

Liam had this overwhelming need to look after them, which most likely came from his need to have control. He didn’t like seeing his boys hurt, that’s just how it was. This had earned him the title of ‘Daddy Direction’ early, which he really hadn’t been that found of, but it certainly caught on quick. He just liked to make sure they were okay, they’d done more for him then they could ever imagine, was it that bad he didn’t want to see them injured or hurt, or late. They needed some order and he was the one to do it.

Despite Louis and Zayn being older than him he felt like they still needed him, and they probably did. Niall he easily felt protective over, because he was just Niall. And even despite clashing more often with Harry and him being the most stubborn, he was still the youngest who sometimes just needed someone. Liam was usually that someone. He took pride in knowing he was the one they’d come to when they were injured or sick, or needed someone to talk to. He was Daddy Direction, that’s how it worked.

Something Liam had worked out over the years though, was that while he could easily care for other people, he didn’t do well when it was him being the one looked after. It’s not like he had many people want to look after him anyway, his family had really been the only ones. And he could far from tell them not to even if he had wanted.

Liam just didn’t like being in that position, it showed this weakness and vulnerability that he loathed. For far too long he had been the victim to weakness and he outright refused to have that again. He was Daddy Direction, he took care of people and the problems. That was how it worked, he didn’t need people looking after him.

So waking up one morning, his head pounding inanely and his body unnaturally hot for this time of year, he slowly started to panic. Because Liam didn’t get sick, he hadn’t gotten sick for years and certainly not in the company of his band mates.

The last time he had been really sick he was 14 and his mother had looked after him. All he remembered from that experience was it being terrible. Luckily he had been fortunate enough to remain rather healthy around his band mates since joining the group.

It seemed his luck was about to run out.

He slowly rose from bed, slight vertigo hitting him on the way up. His back was sore and he felt nauseous from the movement but managed to make it to the bathroom. Upon inspecting himself he looked worse than he could ever have imagined, because it would be near impossible not to tell he was sick.

Liam sighed, sitting on the bathtub with his head in his hands, contemplating his options. He was ill, that was certain. Even if he wanted to deny it, the state of his head indicated he wasn’t healthy.

However, he couldn’t be sick, not this week. Not today, today they had a signing. A signing the fans had been looking forward to for weeks. There was no way he could not show up to that. Plus, he couldn’t likely get out of it without causing some suspicion among his band mates. Because for teenagers there were observant as fuck, but he also knew they would not appreciate him trying to do a signing if he was ill.

Especially not after he had fought with Harry for hours last week about not doing a concert because the boy had a cold. The boy had been naturally defiant claiming he was fine, but Daddy Direction would have none of it, if he was sick he needed to stay home and rest. Harry had yelled a few colourful curses at the older, claiming Liam was just a ‘bloody mother hen who needed to lighten the fuck up’ but eventually Liam was the one that came out victorious in that battle. Granted, Liam had only won because Paul had taken one look at the younger and practically carried the boy back to bed, but nonetheless Liam had been quite impressed with his victory.

Now however he wished he hadn’t fought so hard with the Cheshire lad, because if Harry, or any of the boys found out he was planning on doing a signing when he was sick, they would be furious. Because he would be a hypocrite, clearly.

Liam could look after himself though, if he told them, or they found out they would just worry. Because that’s what they did, and he didn’t like being the cause of their worry. He was supposed to worry about them, not the other way around. He didn’t want them to freak out over him, besides they probably couldn’t take care of a sick person to save their life. And he didn’t need to be put in a vulnerable situation in front of them, because no matter how adorable the fans would think ‘sick Liam’ was, he wouldn’t stand photos being leaked to the internet when he was sleeping.

There was no way he wouldn’t put that kind of humiliation past them. They were like that.

He stood up, taking in a deep, shaky breathe as he tried to compose himself. He’d be fine, he would tough out today and then have an early night. He’d be perfectly fine, it was probably just a cold. Nobody had to know he was ill, he would work through today and his band mates would be none the wiser.

Everything was going to be fine.

***************************************************

 “Niall! I swear to god learn to chew with your mouth shut!” Zayn growled dangerously low at the blonde who was eating cereal across from him. This however just urged the boy to chew at a more obscure rate, bits of food flying in every direction.

“Sorry Z, does this bother you?” Niall smirked.

Zayn whipped a piece of cheerio that had landed on his face, “You are the most disgusting thing to walk this earth.”

Niall grinned widely, “Don’t pretend like you don’t love it.”

“I certainly don’t have to pretend like I don’t love it. Because I don’t love it!” Zayn cried, Niall pushing his last button this early in the morning.

“Someone’s a sour puss in the mornings,” Niall sang, enjoying far too much tormenting the older lad.

That was the last straw and Zayn flung his spoon in the blondes direction, hitting him square on the face.

“Liam did you see that!” Niall cried in mock, hurt outrage.

Liam who had just entered the motels eating area rolled his eyes taking a seat at the end of the table next to Louis and across from Harry, “Zayn don’t throw spoons.” He reprimanded weakly, although it barely held his usually authority, and honestly he was just a little glad the spoons were not being directed at him.

He sat carefully at the table and tried to hide his extremely tired demeanour. It seemed liked getting dressed had him running a marathon because all he wanted to do was go back to bed. His head was pounding and now he was trying to hold back congested coughs that threatened to leave him. He had to act as normal as possible though, because he couldn’t raise suspicion within his band mates.

“See!” Niall said smugly poking his tongue out at Zayn like that warning would stop further battles.

Zayn rolled his eyes, “You are such a child.”

“Just jealous Liam told you off,” Niall teased.

Zayn mumbled something unintelligent, but clearly malice and went back to his food, obviously annoyed that he had lost this argument.

It was now Louis’s turn to ignore the others and turn to the Wolverhampton boy brightly, “You slept in late this morning Liam,” He commented nonchalantly.

Liam just shrugged, buttering a piece of toast he had no intentions of finishing, “I was talking to Nicole late last night because she called,” He lied. He needed a liable excuse as to why he would be tired all day otherwise they’d be suspicious. Although he hasn’t talked to any of his sisters in more than two weeks, he knew it would easily distract them.

“That’s nice, how is she? I really need to call Gemma,” Harry added sheepishly as he spooned cereal into his mouth.

Liam just shrugged, “She’s fine.”

He avoided eye contact with the boys awkwardly, afraid if he looked at them for too long they’d easily be able to see through his healthy facade. Because honestly, he was feeling more awful by the minute, and this was getting bad.

His band mates may be a little retarded but he doubted they were stupid enough not to see that he was clearly ill.

“You okay Li?” Louis asked, eyeing the younger boy off slightly.

Liam’s head snapped up, of course it would be Louis to tell something was wrong with him. People really didn’t give the eldest enough credit sometimes, “Of course I am.” He replied.

“Your eyes look a bit glassy,” Harry commented frowning slightly.

Liam shook his head forcefully, “I’m fine, just tired.”

He tried to shake the boys off but from the looks he was receiving now from Louis and Harry he doubted it was working. Thankfully they didn’t have time to argue with him further though because there hairdresser Lou was rushing towards them, an almost frantic look in her eyes.

“Boys! I’m so glad you haven’t left yet, I thought I’d miss you!” She rambled standing behind Nialls chair and leaning against it.

“What’s up Lou?” Harry asked, Liam forgotten for now due to the attractive blonde.

She took in a deep breath, “You boys have all had chicken pox before, right?” the blonde blurted quickly, a guilty look upon her face.

“The chicken pox?” Niall repeated, his blue eyes filled with confusion.

“Why does that matter?” Zayn frowned.

“Well Lux has gotten them from somewhere and she would have been contagious all of last week. I’m assuming you all would have had them before, and they’re hard to catch when you’re an adult, its mainly just little kids. But they can be worse when you’re older and you guys spend so much time with Lux,” She explained.

Realisation hit all the boys and most of them smiled relieved, “I’ve had it before,” Louis exclaimed happily.

“Yea me too,” Harry agreed.

Niall and Zayn both nodded, “Yea when I was like three.” Zayn scoffed.

Liam however remained quiet as he tried to rack his brain for a memory of the illness, surely it would be there somewhere. He can’t have been the only child to not have gotten chickenpox, could he? As hard as he might though he couldn’t remember actually contracting the illness as a child, and he certainly hadn’t gotten it when he was older. But even if he hadn’t have gotten it, what was the likely hood he could possibly have contracted it now?

“Liam?” Louis snapped Liam out of his thought and the boy flushed.

“O-oh, yea. I’m pretty sure I’ve had it,” He said slowly.

Lou looked at him sceptically, “Are you sure? Because it can be pretty bad when you get it later, if you don’t think you’ve had it before we can get Paul to take you to the doctors after, just to make sure.”

Liam paled at even the mention of the doctors, “No, I’m pretty sure I’ve had it before. I’ll call mom later though, just to be certain.”

Lou seemed much happier with that answer, “Good, I don’t want be Lux to be the reason any of you get sick.”

Niall shrugged, “It’s alright even if she does. But can adults even get chicken pox? Isn’t it like, a baby thing?” He smirked, amusement oozing from his tone.

Liam frowned, was the chickenpox just a baby thing?

“Kids can get it too,” Louis pointed out like it was obvious.

“We’re not exactly ‘kids’ Louis,” Zayn retorted.

Lou laughed, “Anyone can get it guys, it’s just a lot worse when you’re older. It can sometimes be dangerous.”

“Seriously?” Niall asked, “I only thought it was a baby disease.”

“Well, its most commonly associated with children under the age of like 8. It’s not really known for people older to get it, but it still happens,” She shrugged.

“Boys!” A loud voice barked at them from the door way. They all snapped to that direction to find Paul standing there, looking expectantly at them, “Come on we’ve got a signing to get to.”

They smirked, “Coming Paul,” Harry laughed, “Sorry to hear about Lux, I hope she gets better,” he added.

She smiled, “Don’t worry she’ll be fine. Have fun.”

The boys piled out, but Liam lingered slowly behind. He couldn’t have the chicken pox could he? It seemed absurd, Niall was right. It was a children’s disease, how could he have caught it at 18? It was almost emasculating even the thought of contracting chickenpox now. Any sickness, a cold or the flu would have been embarrassing, but the chickenpox? That was taking things way too far.

No, he couldn’t have the chicken pox. He just had the symptoms of a cold. That’s all it was.

Still, he couldn’t help that underlining sick feeling entering his stomach when he was almost certain he’d never had them before and had to quickly remove his hand from his stomach when he realised he was scratching subconsciously.

It was all in his head, he assured himself, he just had a cold.

************************************************************

Liam honestly did not know how he was possibly going to make it through the rest of the signing, it had been absolutely brutal so far. He was feeling nauseous and his head was getting worse by the hour, all these fans screaming were not making it any better. And the entire day he couldn’t help but get that terrible sick feeling out of his gut, lingering that he might have contracted a baby disease, because honestly how was he supposed to even explain that?

On top of that he could feel his chest getting more congested, and was it insanely hot in here of was it just him?

He was finding it hard to keep his eyes completely open and interacting with fans was becoming increasingly difficult because all he really, really wanted to do was sleep. Sleep sounded so good right now, this table surely wasn’t that uncomfortable right?

Liam shook his head, no he would finish the signing. He had to do it for the fans, they had waited in line for hours. It’s the least he could do.

Besides he couldn’t have his band mates getting suspicious, he’d managed to distract for now, but they were kind of fucking observant. He didn’t know how long he could continue to shake them for. What he didn’t realise was how bad he actually must look, because it certainly wasn’t helping when fans kept giving him concerned looks asking him if he was alright, to which he would just reply ‘fine’ as happily as he could. But even the fans were getting worried about him, therefore making his band mates more concerned. Particularly Louis and Zayn who sat either side of him and eyed him off now and then.

Paul had even taking to stand behind his chair after one fan had commented loudly on how he didn’t look well at all and maybe he should go see a doctor about his red eyes. Liam really hadn’t appreciated that.

“Hey sweetheart how’s it going?” Liam heard Louis ask a fan who handed over her CD happily.

“I’m good thanks, you?” The small blonde girl asked.

“I’m good love,” Louis smiled signing her CD with a cheeky wink.

The blonde turned to Liam, however before he could even ask her how she was she asked, “What’s that on your arm Liam?”

The question had been innocent enough but Liam looked down confused and saw three red blisters on his forearm. They weren’t very big or scary looking but Liam felt his stomach drop upon seeing them.

“O-oh, nothing. Must just be a couple of mozzie bites, you know,” He tried to laugh off naturally as he unsuccessfully went to hide his arm away under the table. It was too late though because Louis had seen the penetrating spots and was now frowning at him with his characteristic sassy eyes. Luckily nobody else, not even Paul, had seemed to notice the encounter between them yet.

“Liam,” Louis began warningly, forgetting about the signing.

Liam just sent him a pointed look, “Louis, we’re in the middle of a signing,” He hissed.

“Liam they are not mozzie bites, I knew this morning something was wrong,” The older boy sighed.

“I’m fine and they’re nothing, now we need to finish the signing,” Liam said determinedly averting his gaze away from Louis and back onto the blonde in front of him who was now terribly confused.

He tried to ignore Louis’s stern glare on the side of his head, and completely ignored the older boy when he said, “This is not over,” and continued to signCDs with a now incredibly fake smile plastered on his face.

He was royally fucked now. How on earth was he supposed to get out of this one?

 -/-/-/-

Liam couldn’t have been happier when the signing was officially done, because he didn’t know how much longer he was going to go before he needed a nap.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like Louis had forgotten about the encounter earlier because when they were escorted to a secluded part of the mall the eldest quickly snatched his arm, sending him a stern, pointed look, “Well?” Louis said expectantly demanding an answer from the brunette.

The other boys had crowded around them now, watching the exchange between the Wolverhampton and the Doncaster lads.

Liam looked around desperately trying to find someone, anyone who would help him, but Paul was sending him the same pointed looked that Louis was and honestly between the both of them he knew his chances of getting out of this were slim. Paul clearly knew something was wrong, and by the way Louis was holding his arm Louis wasn’t about to take ‘fine’ as a plausible answer anymore.

Personally he preferred the light, carefree Louis opposed to this demanding, protective one.

“What?” Liam asked, feigning innocence being really his only option at this point, even though he knew that was slim. He pulled his best confused face that would even give Niall’s puppy dog look a run for its money, although from the frown he was receiving from the oldest he could tell the brunette was going to be strong.

“Don’t you ‘what’ me Liam James Payne!” Louis demanded.

Ouch, the middle name. That was never a good sign.

“What’s going on?” Harry asked quite confused by the whole ordeal.

“Are you going to tell them?” Louis asked.

Liam shrugged trying to pull his hand out of Louis grip, “There is nothing to tell,”

Louis rolled his eyes and refused to let go of Liam’s arm, “Oh, come off it Liam. I’m not retarded.”

“I never said you were, I’m fine. Seriously guys their is nothing to worry about.” Liam said but even to him his voice was shaky and uncontrolled. It didn’t help that Louis was now wearing his knowing smirk with an evil glint in his eye. From previous experience he knew that never meant anything good for him.

“What are you talking about?” Zayn demanded, not impressed with being kept out of the loop.

“Liam has been keeping a secret,” Louis told the others, his concerned look transforming to one that Liam did not appreciate at all. His cocky, I know something you don’t look. Liam particularly hated that look because it usually meant his toy story toys were about to be violated or he was about to spill one of Liam’s embarrassing secrets. He loved Louis, he really did. But Louis was one who took too much pleasure in getting things out of him, like that annoying big brother that feels the need to humiliate you at every turn.

Thinking about it though, Liam had really brought this upon himself. Because this was just Liam’s payback for making the eldest worry.

“I have not!” Liam retorted desperately, trying to salvage himself.

“So, do tell us when it was you had the chickenpox Liam?” Louis smirked.

Liam hated that smirk, it was his I’m right and your fucked smirk. He knew the oldest was just milking his humiliation up, enjoying the fact that for once Daddy Direction was wrong and was about to be reprimanded by everyone for it. Its not like he meant it in a malice way, but he was well aware that Louis would be loving this.

That’s what he didn’t particularly want happening, because he knew the four of them would just take too much god damn pleasure in reducing him into a blushing mess at his vulnerability. He loved them, but far too often had he babied them and they would be more then willing to return the favour.

“I-I had them when I was younger,” Liam shrugged not nearly as confident as he should have been, “All kids did right?”

From the corner of his eye he could literally see Zayn face palming and Harry groaning in frustration, clearly now they’d caught on.

“Liam!” Harry scowled approaching the two boys, “You’ve got chicken pox?”

“No!” Liam defended quickly, but it was too late. Louis was dragging his arm towards Harry and Zayn showing him the spots.

“They’re just mozzie bites!” He tried to protest, but he doubted it would work now.

He saw Zayn roll his eyes, “Oh really?” He asked sarcastically.

Liam sent a glare his way, and yelped when he felt someone lifting the end of his top up, the cool air meeting his exposed stomach, “What the hell?” He asked slapping away the hands trying to invade his personal space.

“There on his stomach too,” Harry confirmed who must have been prodding around his middle.

“Liam you are such a douche,” Niall commented, eyeing the taller boy off.

“Guys, seriously I’m fine there is nothing to worry about. Just a few spots,” Liam defended weakly.

“Have you got a fever? Do you feel sick? Have you eaten at all today?” Louis rambled off questions which Liam just groaned in response.

“Seriously guys,”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Pauls voice stopped them all in their tracks as he approached the boys, “You can all stop touching Liam now. You’re clearly making him feel very uncomfortable.”

All the boys took a sheepish step back when they realised they might be suffocating Liam slightly with their worry.

“You guys need to get back into the van and go up to the motel. Once your there then you can question and baby Liam all you’d like. I’ll call a doctor and get him to meet you there in an hour or two check over him.” Paul said.

The other boys seemed completely content with this nodding in agreement but Liam just stood there shocked, “Paul!”

Paul sent him a stern glare, “No Liam. It was stupid of you to come out today if you weren’t feeling well. You know that, you might have infected a few people here. You’ll be on bed rest for at least a week, more if the doctor says so. Now get a move on guys.”

Liam bowed his head down, avoiding all eye contact out of shame and embarrassment for just being reprimanded by their body guard. He couldn’t blame him though, he had completely ignored the fact that he could have infected people, that was stupid and reckless. He should have known better. What if he got hundreds of people sick who came to their signing?

But couldn’t they at least try to understand why he hadn’t told anyone?

He sighed, ripping his arm out of Louis grip and shoving his hands in his pockets when he made his way to the van. He didn’t look back at his band mates to make sure they were following him, far too embarrassed to even make eye contact with them. Instead he just hopped in the very back seat of the van, resting his head on the window as the others followed suit. None of them however sat next to Liam, choosing the front and middle seats as they whispered amongst themselves which he was grateful for. At least they knew he wanted to be alone right now.

*********************************************************************

“Liam? Li, we’re here,”

Liam felt himself being shaken awake and blushed furiously when he realised he had fallen asleep in the van. Niall was grinning softly down at him, but Liam couldn’t help but feel ridiculously embarrassed despite Nialls warm smile.

“T-thanks,” He said barely audioable and he followed Niall out of the car.

The boys began walking to the motel with Liam trudging slowly behind, and for once he was grateful they ignoring him. Kind of.

 He knew hiding it was dumb and reckless, and he could have not only put his own health in danger but probably infected over 100 people with chickenpox. He was Daddy Direction, he was well aware of the repercussions of what had happened and what could have happened.

Now he just wasn’t sure what would happen.

Would the boys be too ashamed and embarrassed to talk to him? Were they mad at him for not telling them? Were they going to not speak for him for the rest of the day because he had been so stupid?

All these insane doubts entered his mind as he walked slowly up to the motel, head hung low and hands buried in his pockets. He knew he was over reacting, surely his friends didn’t hate him. They could never hate him, could they?

Somehow, he just felt like he was letting the boys down. No matter what he did. He was supposed to be Daddy Direction, he wasn’t supposed to be letting them down. He was supposed to be protecting and caring for them. Yet here he was, disappointing the only friends he’d ever really had.

If he had told them about his sickness he wouldn’t be able to do the signing, not only letting his boys down but as well of the millions of fans. If he didn’t tell anyone, he was still letting people down. He couldn’t shake the look of utter distress on Louis’s face when he’d seen the spots, he wasn’t supposed to be the cause of that kind of look.

Before he knew it he had already headed up to his room and he was ushering his key into his motel door. He went to slam the door behind him, hoping to just crash on his bed being ignored for the next few hours by the band mates that would clearly not talk to him and Paul who was obviously very upset at him. He’d clearly thought this one through hadn’t he?

He was startled slightly when his door wouldn’t slam shut, instead four teenage boys were bombarding his room, yelling insanity and nonsense that he couldn’t quite make out.

Had they been walking with him the entire time? He was pretty sure they had been in front of him…

“Okay…good…okay…we’ll probably need that camomile lotion…yea get some of that as well…No I don’t think Liam would appreciate that…No I don’t think so…how am I supposed to know that?…His already got the box set of Toy Story he doesn’t need that either…and make sure you get chicken soup not pumpkin, he doesn’t like that…okay thanks Lou,” The one sided conversation Harry had been having on the phone ended and he replaced the little phone back into his pocket turning happily to Liam.

“Okay, Lou is going to get some supplies for you. She feels awful about Lux giving you the chickenpox, but I talked her out of buying the entire stuffed animal section in Walmart,” Harry grinned.

Liam just gave him a puzzled look as he turned to Zayn and Niall who were on either side of him, “Thanks…?” It came out more of a question.

Harry just continued to grin like everyone knew what he was talking about, and clearly everyone else but Liam was aware, “Pauls already called the doctor and he will be here in a few hours. He’s going to wait for him at the door. We’re going to have to try and keep this from fans for a little, but there perceptive so I wouldn’t put it past them to already know.”

“Okay…” Liam said slowly, he was still unsure as to what was even happening, a moment ago he was pretty sure they were ignoring him, still mad he didn’t tell them. Now they were acting fine.

Then again he had fallen asleep in the car, they could have easily situated some kind of plan then, to ease him into this illness.

 “I’m sorry.” Liam blurted out without thinking, he quickly snapped his hand over his mouth and buried his face in his hands. He wasn’t sure what possessed him to say it, but it felt like something he should say after making them all worry and infecting a whole room of people.

“What for?” Niall asked beside him, now rubbing soothing circles on his back that he didn’t deserve. God, this illness was already making him all kinds of emotional. All he wanted to do was sleep, but at this very moment he just felt like bursting into tears.

“Liam are you okay? Are you going to throw up or something?” Zayn asked worryingly, not usually one to be so gentle when vomit was involved.

Liam shook his head, hands still covering his face in now what was an attempt to keep himself from sobbing, “I really am sorry!” he cried again.

Harry and Louis shared concerned looks, everyone was kind of uncertain as to what he was apologizing for.

They walked the brunette over to the couch, where Liam kept his head low avoiding eye contact as Louis knelt in front of him, “Li, what’s wrong? Stop saying sorry mate,” He tried to lighten the mood.

Liam just groaned, and started to scratch his arm, “I didn’t mean to get sick,” He muttered.

“Are you apologizing for getting sick?” Harry asked.

Liam just shrugged, now feeling more increasingly stupid then before, “I donno,” He mumbled, “And for not telling you.”

He heard Harry groan frustrated and Louis chuckle slightly, “You don’t need to be sorry mate, we’re not mad.”

Liam tentatively looked up to find four pairs of eyes staring down at him, “Really?” He asked.

“Why would be mad?” Zayn asked confused, “we’re just worried about you.”

Liam shrugged again, “I don’t know, I was being an idiot. I should have told you, I put so many people at risk today!” He said almost hysterically.

Harry frowned, of course that was the reason Liam was so upset. Because he might have infected a few people, even sick Liam was still thinking of everyone but himself, “Liam everyone does stupid things sometimes, it’s okay,” He assured the older taking a seat next to him and rubbing his back.

Liam looked up at him, “No it’s not okay! What if heaps of people get sick and it’s all my fault!”

Niall chuckled, “Most people have actually had chickenpox man, you’re a minority.”

Liam looked up at him with wide eyes and Zayn elbowed the boy in the ribs before taking a seat on the other side of Liam, “That’s not helping Ni!”

Niall shrugged rubbing his now bruised ribs, “What? I’m sorry Li but you have to admit, you’ve gotten a baby’s illness, it’s slightly amusing.”

“Shut up Niall,” Louis added rolling his eyes, “But he is right Liam, I doubt you infected many people. Most have had it already and I’m pretty sure you can only give it to other people before you start showing spots, and you’ve already got those.”

He held out Liam’s arm for good measure, cupping the boys wrist gently as everyone eyed the ugly red blisters that were planted on his skin. He frowned at the spots, but that did make him feel much better. Maybe he hadn’t put anyone else’s health at risk. Thank god.

“So what now?” Niall asked, breaking the tension and still rubbing his ribs that he was sure Zayn had seriously injured.

Louis grinned sheepishly up at Liam from where he was knelling in front of the boy, “Well it would be really great if you told us how you were feeling Liam. And like, the truth would be helpful.”

“Right,” Liam flushed slightly and ducked his head, he should really be a lot better at this. Clearly the boys were not going to abandon him in his time of need like he had panicked, this is supposed to be a good thing. He couldn’t help but think having them look after him though wasn’t going to be such a good thing, “Well I woke up feeling kind of sick,”

“You woke up feeling ‘kind of’ sick?” Harry asked in disbelief, “and you didn’t tell us?”

Harry had a crazy feeling Liam’s ‘kind of’ was a lot different to his definition of ‘kind of’.

“Harry shut up,” Louis scowled and urged Liam to continue.

“Yea, kind of sick. I thought it was just a cold, I didn’t see any spots,” Liam continued slowly, “But then Lou told us about Lux and I couldn’t remember having chickenpox but I assumed I had them, everybody had. I didn’t see the spots until the signing though,” he finished.

Harry didn’t seem at all happy with this answer, probably still upset that Liam had tried to hide the illness. He was still bitter about the other week, but like all of them felt like he somehow needed to look after his band mates, which was always difficult when Liam was involved though. Because everyone knew Daddy Direction looked after people, but nobody looked after him. Well that certainly wasn’t going to work this week.

Louis however seemed content with Liam at least opening up to them a little. It was a small victory in his book, “Okay, well that helps a bit.”

Liam ducked his head again as Zayn rubbed soothing circles on his back, he didn’t want to admit that he was having trouble staying awake and now his stomach was actually itching like crazy. Now that he knew he wasn’t about to be disowned (even though he knew that was stupid) he just wanted to go to bed.

“I am sorry,” Liam repeated, although now he wasn’t quite sure what he was even apologizing for.

Louis sighed chuckling, “It’s okay mate.”

Liam nodded and fiddled with the hem of his shirt, Louis eyed him off and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, “How about you go get some rest and we’ll wake you when the doctor comes?” he suggested.

Liam looked into the chocolate eyes of the older boy and bit his lip hesitantly, “Okay.”

He smiled softly at the boys, unsure as to what they were all thinking while they wore unreadable expressions. Honestly at this stage he was too tired to care though, because it wasn’t even 3pm yet and he was physically and mentally drained.

He made his way to his bedroom, avoiding eye contact with his band members and barely had time to kick his shoes and jacket off before he flopped into his extremely fluffy motel donor, not bothering to take of his jeans as he wrapped the blanket around himself. Not even moments after his head hitting the pillow his eyes dropped and he entered a restless slumber.

********************************************************************************

Niall tapped his knee nervously against the table, biting his thumb nail as he watched his youngest band mate delicately cook soup in the kitchen, the pink apron Louis had bought his for Christmas around his waist. Niall didn’t know why Harry had brought the apron all the way over to America, surely it was something he could have left at home. He doubted the boy did much cooking while they were on tour. Nonetheless the boy was wearing the gag gift as he cooked, something he obviously took pleasure in doing, most days anyway.

Of course Harry wasn’t cooking for fun today, today Harry was cooking for a purpose. And not his general I just want to try something new or see what Niall will eat, purpose. No, Harry was trying to make chicken noodle soup from scratch for their very sick band mate.

Niall didn’t honestly know how this was going to work though, as the motel room was missing some vital ingredients, noodles for starters. But Niall wasn’t about to argue with Harry, he was the expert after all. Sometimes it was just easier to not argue with him anyway, because he knew Harry was just trying to distract himself.

They were all trying to distract themselves.

It seemed stupid really, they shouldn’t be this worried. He was in bed, asleep no doubt. But it had them all on the edge, because this was Liam and Liam never got sick.

And when he did get sick he didn’t tell anyone. Typical.

Daddy Direction sick wasn’t something to take lightly, because he was usually the one to take care of the sick people. So without him nobody was really sure what to do. They just lacked…. direction. No pun intended.

Liam was the glue that held them altogether, and without him in action everyone was slowly freaking out. Because what if they killed him or made him worse with their terrible ‘doctoring’ skills.

Not only that, but everyone was still a little ticked off Liam hadn’t actually informed anyone of his illness. Because that had been just downright stupid on his behalf. But it was difficult to be completely mad when they sort of understood, Liam was different to the rest of them. They had to treat this differently.

He had refused to tell them, rather baring out the pain all on his own, and then freaked the fuck out when they found out. And only because he was ashamed of himself (which Niall didn’t ever think he’d really understand) and because he thought he had infected a whole heap of people. Even while sick, thinking of everyone but himself.

So the boys had to treat this tentatively, going at him too strong might make Liam retreat into the introverted boy they’d meet at boot camp, not strong enough might make him think they didn’t care.

That’s why they hadn’t accompanied him to his room when he went to bed, they knew he needed that space. That time to analyse and adjust, work out what was going to happen. That’s just how Liam was. Nobody was going to try and understand it, they would just live with it.

Because if it was Niall they wouldn’t have acted tentatively, they would have just barged in there. Bombarding him with orders and stuffing thermometers in his mouth, because that’s how they treated Niall. They worried and fretted, and ruffled his hair and held him tightly. Sometimes he found it annoying, most of the time he didn’t mind as long as they were paying attention to him. Sometimes he even milked it, because let’s face it he could get pretty much anything he wanted on a normal day, when he was sick it just amplified. If Niall wanted a cuddle he got a damn cuddle, if he wanted Nandos, someone got him Nandos. Niall wasn’t used to people not fretting about him. He would take the endless teasing and coo’s and being referred to as the baby, because he knew it meant they loved him. To Niall it made sense.

However they could hardly do that with Liam, not straight away at least. Barging in there and demanding orders could urge tears, and ruffling his hair could create frustration and holding him tightly might just suffocate him.

So despite Louis’s desperate urge to check on the boy, just to make sure he was sleeping peacefully and Zayns need to be literally sitting in there with him, and Harry’s want to be force feeding him undercooked soup, they were instead piled in the little kitchen, fretting about him together.

“Niall! Stop tapping you leg!” Zayn cried frustrated, having enough of the blondes annoying habits for one day.

Niall scoffed, “Sorry. I’m just reckless.”

“We’re all reckless but we don’t need to piss everyone else off!” Zayn retorted.

“Oh shut up Zayn,” Niall rolled his eyes.

Zayn sent him a dirty look and Harry just watched amused from the kitchen, before the Bradford lad could retort with a nasty comeback though Louis entered the kitchen, slipping his iPhone into the pockets of his red jeans, “Okay so I just got off the phone with Karen,”

“And?” Niall asked, eyes all turning to the oldest member.

 “Liam, as suspected, has not had the chickenpox before,” He answered.

Harry groaned, he had kind of been hoping they may have been wrong even though it didn’t seem plausible, “Of course not, did she say anything else?”

“No,” Louis shook his head, “I had to talk her out of not catching a flight down here though, she was freaking out a bit. I managed to convince her Liam is in perfectly capable hands though and he has to call her tomorrow,”

Harry smirked, he couldn’t imagine any of their moms not wanting to fly down instantly upon hearing they were sick. He wouldn’t doubt his mom offering to fly down instantly the moment she hears Liam is sick, just to take care of him.

“Did she say how to deal with a sick Liam maybe?” Niall asked.

Louis frowned, “Kind of. She said he doesn’t get sick very often, and he doesn’t like it.”

“No shit Sherlock,” Zayn muttered. All this illness was really putting him in a shitty mood.

The older rolled his eyes, “She didn’t say anything we don’t already know. She said she isn’t surprised he didn’t tell us and if it was possible he would have tried to hide it for the whole time. He doesn’t like people to fuss over him or worry about him because he’d rather do it alone, and he hates being babied. However she did say when he gets really sick he can be prone to having nightmares and get very quiet and kind of clingy. I’ve never seen a clingy Liam before,” he pondered slightly.

The others frowned, Liam was always very independent, seeing him this vulnerable was certainly going to be weird.

“So we’ll just have to fuss and baby him as much as we can so he knows we’re here for him,” Harry smirked, a teasing glint in his eyes trying to make light of the situation.

Louis laughed, “You’re evil Harry, give the boy a bit of the break.”

Harry scoffed, “I am. But it’s hard seeing him like this and not, considering if and when are positions are swapped he has no issues dropping everything on the planet to take care of us. He honestly can’t expect us to leave him alone can he?”

Louis smiled at Harry’s caring demeanour, despite Liam and Harry’s frequent arguments it wasn’t hard to see the younger desperately cared for the boy and seeing him sick was something he clearly wasn’t taking well, “You can look after him all you want mother Styles, when the doctor gives you the instructions and the go, okay?”

Harry nodded, accepting this answer, “okay.”

_-Knock Knock-_

The four instantly turned to the door and Zayn let in the person knocking. They were greeted with their sturdy bodyguard Paul and a man who they didn’t recognise that looked only a few years older than them.

Zayn eyed the stranger off, “Who’s this?” he asked Paul, always one to get straight to the point and tell someone when they weren’t wanted.  Zayn didn’t like the look of this guy, he was wearing a coat and holding some kind of a weird bag with a doppy look in his eyes. If this was the doctor Zayn was seriously doubting LA’s medial system.

“This is the doctor,” Paul said, “Dr Lance.”

Zayn frowned, typical, “You looks a bit young,”

Dr Lance chuckled good naturedly but Zayn just continued to frown with his arms crossed over his chest, “I get that a lot.”

Dr Lance didn’t elaborate on it and Zayn figured even if he pressed he wouldn’t.

“Where’s Liam?” Paul asked, trying to avert the conversation as Zayn didn’t look like he was going to get any friendlier. He tried not to sigh, Zayn always did this when he became protective over the boys. He turned into this alpha male and challenged anyone who he saw as any kind of threat to his boys. And by threat, he meant they looked at them, because Zayn was all kinds of protective over all his band mates and didn’t appreciate any outsiders help or peering eyes.

“In his room sleeping,” Niall piped up.

“Is he okay?” Paul asked.

Niall shrugged, “We don’t know. We just decided to let him sleep.”

Paul nodded, “Good, just this way Joe.”

Zayn snorted, Joe Lance? That’s his name?

Paul frowned at him while he lead the doctor to Liam’s room, but stopped mid way when he saw all four boys following him, “How about we give him some space, yea?” Paul suggested tiredly.

Instantly they all protested about how Liam wasn’t going to let some stranger look him over without them.  He needed at least one of them there to make him feel comfortable. Paul seriously doubted this, Liam was sick, not dying. But he could hardly deny the boys worry, clearly they were slowly loosing it or something, so he settled on bringing Louis is with them. Because not surprisingly, Louis had obviously taken his older brother role on and was the least likely to physically harm the man who was here to help Liam. He was also well aware of how much Liam looked up to the boy, so he figured the younger would feel most comfortable with him.

Managing to get the other three to sit down on the couch and be quite because this wouldn’t take long, they entered the bedroom to find Liam curled up in his blankets, head barely poking out.

Louis was the first to approach the boy, because honestly Paul didn’t know what to do (his job description said nothing about looking after sick teenagers) and Dr Lance was afraid someone would bitch him out if he woke up the sleeping boy.

“Liam?” Louis said gently, rocking the boys shoulder, cooing him awake.

Liam hesitantly opened his eyes, blinking at the light and resembling a puppy with his hair wild and curly with a confused look on his face, “Hmm?” He hummed.

“The doctors here, he just wants to check you over,” Louis explained. Liam nodded and let Louis help him sit up. Louis frowned when he realised Liam was still in his jeans and plaid shirt and sweating profoundly. He really should have checked on the boy before he fell asleep.

“Hi Liam, I’m Dr Lance,” The doctor said as he approached Liam’s bed, sitting on the side of the blanket.

“Hi,” Liam said quietly, he looked at Paul, as if asking for confirmation and Paul smiled warmly at him. God the kid looked more awful than before, now he felt kind of bad for reprimanding him. But when he took this job, it was titled security guard. Not babysitter, it wasn’t his job to father the children.

Then again, he wouldn’t trade his job for anything, but he wouldn’t say it aloud how he had grown to desperately love the boys like sons.

Stupid, adorable teenagers.

“So I heard you’re not feeling well kiddo?” Dr Lance asked softly.

Liam frowned at the childish tone the man had adopted, because he was an 18 year old male, was this guy for real? Not to mention Liam would really like to see some credentials, because bull this guy was old enough to be a doctor.

The boy just took to nodding slightly, and Louis moved closer to him, eyeing off the doctor.

“Do you mind if I have a quick look?” The doctor asked, “I’ll just need you to take off your shirt for a few moments.”

Liam nodded as he fumbled trying to unbutton his plaid shirt, in the end Louis helped him get it off because his hands were shaking slightly, he assumed from a combine of nervousness and illness. Doctor Lance then went about poking and prodding around his top half. He pressed the cool stethoscope against his chest and felt his glands to check for swelling. After checking his blood pressure and asking Liam to stick out his tongue where he was forced to endure the taste of disgusting wood and say “ahhh” Dr Lance finally just eyed down the spots. Liam felt self conscious as everyone stared him down, opting to fold his arms over his chest.

He couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the sympathetic looks they were sending him, because upon expected he was covered in multiple red itchy blisters. Not only did they look awful, they felt terrible. With the cool air hitting his skin it amplified their itchiness and all he wanted to do was scratch.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on which way you looked at it, he managed to control himself, instead waiting for the diagnosis.

“Well you definitely have the chickenpox,” Dr Lance concluded.

Liam would have loved to say ‘no shit’ because clearly that was obvious but somehow he managed to refrain himself.

“So how long will I have to stay on bed rest?” Liam asked instead.

“For a least a week, possibly two. It just depends how quickly your body recovers. You’ll have to keep an eye on it though because it can lead to shingles. So you have to be careful,” He explained.

“Shingles?” Louis repeated, he wasn’t entirely sure what that was. But it certainly didn’t sound good.

“We’ve caught it early and it’s not likely at this point, but we have to prepare for the worst. Just make you get plenty of sleep, this illness will knock you around a bit. Calamine lotion, oatmeal baths, oven mittens on your hands if necessary,” He tried to joke but Liam just gave him a ‘what the fuck’ kind of look and Louis glared, indicating the man’s lame attempt at humour was not appreciated.

Dr Lance turned to Paul instead, “Make sure his temperature doesn’t get over 102.5 or call me, and I’ll prescribe some antibiotics to help try and ease the pain a little,”

Paul nodded and Dr Lance turned back to Liam, “Just make sure you get plenty of rest and don’t scratch too much. It’s just something you’re going to have to ride out unfortunately. Keep up your fluids and you’ll be fine.”

With one last friendly smile him and Paul left, leaving Liam alone with the oldest.

He sighed dramatically, “This sucks,” he threw himself back down onto his pillow.

Louis chuckled at his satirized behaviour but still felt sympathetic for the boy, “I know Li, but don’t worry it’ll be fine.”

Liam just hummed a “yea,” not really believing it at all, because this situation sucked.

Louis sighed, “Okay, how about you go take a shower and then come out for something to eat okay?”

Liam nodded, “Alright,”

Louis went to leave but he felt something clasp his wrist softly, he turned back to find Liam staring up at him his eyes wide, “Thanks.” He mumbled softly.

Louis smiled, the small gesture meaning more to him then Liam would ever understand, “It’s okay Li,” 


	2. Part 2

Stepping out of the shower, steam emerging from the glass as he opened the door from having it maybe that little bit too scolding, Liam felt refreshed for the first time that day. Because despite having a baby’s disease and being put on bed rest for at least a week, he finally didn’t feel like he was hiding anything.

That could perhaps be because he wasn’t hiding anything anymore, that ship had sailed and everyone was well aware of what was going on. On top of that they were still here, that was possibly a miracle in itself, but Liam wasn’t about to question it, he didn’t want them to change their minds or something silly like that.

He stood by the mirror, towel wrapped around his waist as he inspected his body for the first time properly to see the impending damage. He frowned, because he didn’t realise he was covered in this many spots. When did this happen?

It seemed almost every inch of him was covered in some kind of red blister, the only part of him not so far was his face. But he could see little ones on his neck, maybe he’d be lucky enough for them not to get on his face? Wishful thinking but he could at least try.

Frowning he went back to his bedroom, looking at his spots certainly wasn’t going to get rid of them. He wondered if the boys had managed to get the lotion and oats, Paul would have at least gotten them he assumed.

He smiled when he saw someone - assuming Louis who had been with him last, had laid out some clothes for him to put on. His favourite grey sweatpants and a loose white T-shirt were folded neatly on his freshly made bed. Someone had been very busy while he showered, although he doubted any of the boys had changed his sheets, he doubted any of them knew how.

Either way he put on the clothes, ignoring the fact that the white v-neck probably wasn’t his and quickly towel dried his hair, leaving it to go curly. He sighed, even after that extremely relaxing shower he now felt even more tired than before. His bed looked so comfortable and was practically calling him back. Would anyone really care if he did go back to sleep? He was sick, surely he was allowed to?

And it was already – 7:30. When did it become 7:30?!

Liam sighed, he wouldn’t risk going to bed. Because it wouldn’t be an hour before the boys came barging in, disrupting him from his slumber to make sure he was alive and not passed out somewhere. As much as sleep was calling him, being brutally awoken from that wasn’t, so he took to exiting his room and finding the boys. Maybe they’d be mildly entertaining enough to keep his thoughts away from his pounding head and itchy stomach.

“Hey!” Niall greeted happily from the sofa as Liam slumped next to him, the blonde happily watching SpongeBob and Zayn sprawled out on the other couch, a new book in his grasp.

“Hey Li, how are you feeling?” Zayn asked, setting the book down and turning his attention the younger.

Liam shrugged wary of this new attention, “Alright.”

Zayn smiled warmly at him, something Zayn didn’t do often and Liam couldn’t help but smile back. He was glad the boys were just sitting down, relaxing. He didn’t have the energy to deal with them if they had been wrestling or something.

“Stop that!”

Before even realising what he was doing Louis was lightly slapping his hand away from his itchy stomach, and was grinning cheekily at him. Liam looked up at him sheepishly, “Sorry.” He bowed his head.

Louis chuckled, taking at seat next to him, ruffling his hair and draping his arm over the couch, “Don’t be. You’re just going to have to try and not scratch too much though. Apparently scaring can be much worse when you’re older.” He informed.

“Great,” Liam sighed, hitting his head on the back of the couch, “Just great.”

Louis grinned at him, “Don’t worry mate, you’ll be fine.”

“Are you hungry?” Niall asked, always the one to think about food first.

Liam shrugged, “Not really. Where’s Paul?” he asked.

He didn’t want to admit that he was still a little hurt about what happened before, of course Paul hadn’t meant to yell at him or anything. But Paul had never talked to him like that, if anything he was always reprimanding Louis or Harry, not him. He just wanted to make sure the body guard wasn’t too mad or upset with him. He adored Paul too much for that.

“He went to get some of the medication Dr Lance prescribed, which apparently is just strong pain killers to knock you out for a while,” Zayn snorted. Clearly they’d seen the same problem he had with the doctor.

“Was he a little… weird to you?” Liam asked.

Niall laughed, “Extremely, Pauls not too impressed either. I don’t think he will be coming back.”

Liam smiled, “Good, he was weird.”

“He was a stupid twat,” Zayn commented and shrugged when they all gave him shocked looks, “You were all thinking it!”

Liam rolled his eyes, of course they were. But they weren’t going to say it.

Suddenly Harry appeared from around the couch, pink apron around his waist and tray of food in his hands, “I bare food!” He joked happily as he set the tray on the coffee table in front of Liam.

It had what Liam assumed was chicken soup in a bowl, buttered toast, a bottle of water, a cup of orange juice and small mountain of chocolate. He cringed at the food and of the choice, he wasn’t particularly hungry nor did any of it seem very appetising. Those foods mixed together on a normal day weren’t something he’d choose. But he appreciated the effort nonetheless.

“Thanks Harry,” Liam blushed as the boy stood over him, and the younger just grinned widely.

“Well you need to eat. You don’t have to eat it all, just try a bit. And I wasn’t sure what you would want. I always want dry toast and chocolate when I’m sick but I know you like chicken noodle soup. And don’t worry I didn’t make the soup from scratch, Lou came over with some of it after I made a mess of the chicken trying to make my own,” Harry added.

Liam laughed, “Thanks, I’ll try.”

Harry and all the boys seemed content with that answer, “Oh and look what else she brought!” Harry said uncharacteristically excitedly. He quickly trotted over to the kitchen and came back with a decent sized brown bear with a large bow around its neck and held it out for Liam to observe.

Liam smiled at the bear, it was cute and seeing Harry get excited over it made him happy. Not that he was particularly partial to stuffed animals, but he took the bear anyway, “He’s cute.” Liam commented.

“Lou couldn’t resist buying you at least one bear, and he can be you’re get well bear. He’ll make you feel better,” Harry smiled childishly.

Liam eyed the bear in his hands, it certainly wasn’t making him feel better yet, it was a little creepy in all honesty. But he could hardly deny his band mates when they were looking at him like that and it was odd for Harry to be this childish and excited over anything. And if taking the bear meant that it would keep Harry happy he certainly wasn’t going to let them know just how unappreciated the bear really was. Instead he forced a smile, “Tell her thank you for me, it’s wonderful,”

Harry grin grew, as if it was his fault for the unrealised fake smile that possessed Liam’s face, “no problem.” He said taking a seat on the floor and pulling out his phone to text Lou.

Liam sighed, placing the bear next to him, in between himself and Niall. He began to eat slowly, taking small sips from his soup and large gulps from his water. Not even half way through his soup though he realised that he couldn’t eat anymore and his body was feeling unnaturally uncomfortable.

He fidgeted in his seat and Niall who took his attention off the TV for a second eyeing him off. Liam grinned weakly and held out the chocolate that Harry had left him, “Do you want it?”

It was a poor attempt at trying to advert the attention anywhere but him, but Niall grinned happily accepting the sugary treat. If Liam wasn’t going to eat it someone had to.

Louis just grinned softly at him, sending the younger boy a concerned look as he lent his head on the back of the couch.

“Are you done?” He asked.

Liam nodded, “I can’t eat anymore.”

Louis smiled, standing up and taking the tray with him, “That’s okay. You ate more then I’d thought you would,” He laughed.

Liam grinned, glad Louis wasn’t disappointed he couldn’t eat more. Why was he always so worried about disappointing them?

“How are you feeling Li?” Harry asked, who had now taken the couch with Zayn, spread all over the older boy who didn’t seem to appreciate the company. Harry just ignored him though.

Liam shrugged, “Alright, tired.” He sighed.

“Do you want to go to sleep?” Zayn asked.

Liam shook his head, “I don’t think I can even if I wanted to.”

Harry frowned, “How about we watch a movie? Take your mind off of the itchiness?”

Liam smiled tentatively, “You don’t have to – “ he started but Harry was already jumping off Zayn to the DVD player.

“Nonsense, we can have a Toy Story marathon,” Harry laughed.

Liam could feel his ears tinting pink and he fiddled with the hem of his t-shirt, “We don’t have to, we can watch that new one you guys wanted to see – “

Zayn laughed loudly, “Li, don’t even try to deny Toy Story’s not your favourite movie. Besides Niall wants to watch it,” he added.

Niall who had been happily munching away on his chocolate looked up confused, “What do I want to do?”

“Nothing, just go with it,” Zayn told the blonde, “we’re watching Toy Story. End of discussion.” The Bradford boy told everyone in the room like his word was law or something. Which in all honestly nobody was going to question.

After putting on the movie Harry retrieved several fluffy blankets from the cupboard, throwing one over Niall’s head who had decided to sprawl out on the floor with a few pillows. Harry handed a fluffy blanket gently to Liam to share with Louis and kept one for himself and the naturally brooding teen.

The movie began to show old credits when Louis took a seat next to him grinning sheepishly his way while he held the automatic thermometer and a few pills in his hands, “Do you mind? Paul wants to make sure we’re continually checking your temperature.”Louis said, clearly he didn’t want to take the boys temperature as much as Liam didn’t want it taken, but Louis had clearly taken on the role as care giver so there wasn’t much of another option.

Liam hesitated, eyeing off the penetrating device cautiously but nodded. He winced when it was stuck in his ear by the oldest and it hurt his head when it beeped.

“I don’t think its too bad. We’ll just keep an eye on it,” Louis commented, “Here take these.”

He handed Liam two small pills and he wasn’t even sure what they were supposed to do as he gulped them down with some water. He knew Louis wouldn’t give him anything dangerous though, he trusted Louis to take care of him.

Although the boy probably knew the least about medical health, he’d had the most experience looking after sick people. He had four younger sisters he’d taken care of after all. He couldn’t help but feel safe and content in the boys presence. He always had, but his illness had just amplified that. As much as he loved the other boys and all their desires to help him, he really just wanted Louis their next to him. Without him he felt lost and almost abandoned.

He wasn’t sure where these thoughts were coming from, he’d surely never felt like he needed Louis before. Sure he’d always admired the boy to a fair degree, but it was Louis, most people did. Yet, here he was trusting Louis with everything he had, and lonely when the boy wasn’t there.

It must just be the shock of his illness setting in. Today had been a long day, and almost frightening at parts. He needed a good, relaxed sleep and he would be fine. Well, not fine perse, but not as dependant on the older as today. Surely Louis finding out first about his illness, forcing him to confess and accompanying him with the doctor was beyond to make him feel more drawn to the boy.

Surely tomorrow he would feel this way towards all of them, like he usually did.

Either way, the pills were working fast and the dull ache in his head was replaced with a stiff yawn and he barely noticed the itchiness of his stomach as he wrapped the blanket around his torso.

Subconsciously, or perhaps not, he shuffled closer to Louis, appreciating the comfort he was radiating. Louis easily acknowledged this by wrapping his arm tightly around the brunette and bringing him closer, letting Liam rest his head on the boys broad chest. Louis ran fingers through the sick boy’s hair and for once Liam finally felt content.

He watched as Andy played with Woody and Boo Pep, chuckling when Louis commented about how disappointed he was that Boo Pep and Woody never got together in the other movies.

Zayn of course retorted it with “they’re just toys Louis!”

Yea, this was nice.

******************************************************************************

When Liam woke up next, he couldn’t remember falling asleep. Blinking his eyes, trying to get used to the light change in the room, he saw that the TV was still on, but it certainly wasn’t playing Toy Story.

He remembered watching Toy Story one, and about half of the second. He must have fallen asleep around then he worked out after a while.

The second thing he realised, was that he was curled up on the couch in a little ball, head resting in someone’s lap. He assumed from previous positions and the way the lad was running their fingers through his hair with that ever so gentle touch it must be Louis. Because only Louis was ever this gentle with him, and only Louis lap was ever this comfortable.

Despite his best efforts Liam had fallen asleep on each of the boys at one time or another, as they had slept on him from time to time. He worked out quickly that he didn’t particularly like falling asleep on Zayn because he was terribly uncomfortable and whiny about the whole thing, which was stupid because did Zayn know how many times they had been his human pillow before? Niall and Harry fidgeted too much to ever get some real rest when he fell asleep on them and they were always energised and needed to move around too much so sleep was almost impossible. Louis however was different, he was gentle and kind, and never moved once when Liam rested on him. His touch was the precise tenderness and roughness to instantly make him relax and sleep would take over him within seconds. It was surprising he had last a whole movie before Louis’s soft touch had him sleeping like a baby.

Although it was embarrassing, nobody could hardly blame him, he was sick and this was Louis. Everyone knew what he was like, they’d all been there before. Louis came across as very hyperactive most of the time but everyone knew he was the most gentle with all the boys.

Liam sat up, scratching his stomach because unsurprisingly the itchiness had come back. He groaned, couldn’t he just go back to sleep and forget everything?

“Hey,” Louis whispered, smiling at him and taking his attention away from the movie as he saw Liam stir.

“Hi,” Liam said, “Sorry,” he added gesturing towards the pillow resting in the elders lap he had been using.

Louis laughed, “Don’t apologise, I’m just glad you could sleep.”

“What are you watching?” the sick boy asked, averting the conversation away from him.

“Iron Man, Zayns pick. Although he fell asleep not long after it was put on,” Louis laughed.

Liam frowned, looking around all his band mates were asleep except Louis, “Oh,” was all he said.

Louis shrugged, “You conked out first but we finished toy story in case you woke up. Then Zayn wanted Iron man but he fell asleep. Niall was quick next but Harry had been fighting it for ages, just a few minutes ago I’d say he properly drifted off,”

Liam smiled, that sounded like something Harry would do, “I think he wanted to stay up just in case you woke up,” Louis added.

Liam grinned sheepishly, “He didn’t need to do that,”

Liam shrugged, “I know that and so do you. But he was pretty worried today,”

Liam frowned, “I know. I didn’t mean to upset him,” Liam fiddled with the blanket in his lap, he couldn’t imagine how upset the younger must have been all day not knowing how he was. Harry always took things very personally and probably for some stupid reason thought he should be doing more. Clearly he had already done enough and if anyone should be upset it was Liam for being so stupid.

“I don’t think it was that,” Louis commented, “I think he just didn’t want you to think he was really mad or anything especially after last week. He just cares about you, we all do. None of us wanted to upset you or anything, we were just a little annoyed that you didn’t tell us because we wanted you to be well. And you and him sometimes but heads a bit, so I think he was over compensating a little,” Louis said.

Liam sighed, “I know. I am really sorry, Harry really shouldn’t have to worry about stuff like this.”

“He knows you love him, he just wanted to make sure you know that too,” Louis shrugged.

Liam smiled, “I know.”

Louis grinned cheekily, “So how are you feeling now?”

“I’ve seen better days, that’s for sure,” Liam admitted.

“I’ll bet,” Louis laughed, “How on earth did you get chicken pox? Seriously?”

Liam blushed despite himself, “I honestly have no idea,”

“You must have been the only kid in the world not to have gotten them as a child,” Louis laughed.

“Hey, I’m sure many kids didn’t get them!” Liam defended playfully.

Louis rolled his eyes, “Whatever,” he laughed.

Liam shrugged, “Hey, thanks Lou…you know, for everything,”

Louis smiled warmly at him, taking the boys hand in his own and giving it a little squeeze, “You know it’s not a problem and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Just don’t be stupid and think that we would ever be annoyed or hate you for something like this. We love you unconditionally Li, and its impossible for someone to be superman all the time. You have to need us like we need you sometimes,”

Liam blushed, “I know, it’s just… different.”

Louis shrugged, “Different is good sometimes,” He said quietly.

Liam stared at the boy, feeling his face turn pink and his heart race speed up. Although he knew what the older boy meant he couldn’t help but feel it had some double meaning or hidden innuendo in it from the way he was looking at him. Because he had never noticed just how deep and kind Louis’s eyes really were, or how beautiful and structured his jaw line was.

Liam let his gaze drop before he realised he was staring and tried to let his heart race slow down, clearly the illness was making his head go funny.

Louis however refused to let go of his hand, and Liam doubted the Doncaster’s lads eyes had dropped the gaze. Was he seeing things or had there been a knowing, playful smirk on Louis’s lips, obviously about some joke he was not a part of.

Liam ignored it though, the sickness was clearly getting to him.

“Do you want to go to sleep?” Louis finally asked after seemingly like holding his gaze forever.

Liam gulped loudly, “Yea,”

Louis smiled and helped him up, although Liam hardly needed anyone to help him move. He complied with the older boy as he was lead to his room though and even let Louis pull the covers off his bed and help him settle in.

It felt stupid, almost childish as the older covered him with the comforter. However it felt natural, and normal. Like Louis touch was hypnotizing and his eyes held nothing but comfort.

“Goodnight Li,” Louis said, he gave one last squeeze to Liam’s hand and quietly shut the door, leaving Liam to submerge himself in the darkness.

It had all gone so quickly, Louis tucking him in, saying goodnight. Liam didn’t have time to register that Louis left, let him alone in the dark room. He had wanted to call out, grab Louis’s hand before he left, asking him, begging him to stay. He didn’t want to be alone, he didn’t want to have to do this by himself.

He’d always been a clingy sick, he knew that. That was nothing new. Usually he was reliable and independent and he didn’t need anyone. But when he was sick he just wanted someone there, someone to hold him and tell him it was going to be okay. He wasn’t like this very often, and it was almost humiliating to admit, but he was sick. Surely he was allowed to feel like this? With a crazy itchy stomach, an insane pounding head and nausea he could ask for whatever he wanted.

Louis was just the oldest, the one he was drawn to. The one who took care of him the best. That’s why he wanted him.

Liam couldn’t get that nagging feeling out of the back of his mind though, because what if he wasn’t just feeling lonely and needed someone.

What if he needed Louis? What if this feeling of abandonment wasn’t because he was just upset, what if it was because Louis was the one leaving him?

Would Harry or Niall fill this void? Or would only the eldest make him happy?

Liam shook his head, no that was absurd. He didn’t need Louis any more then he needed the others, and he certainly didn’t need anyone that badly. He was sick, not dying. He could bare this on his own. He wasn’t an invalid or a baby, however if he kept acting like one they would certainly start to treat him like it.

He sighed, despite the over whelming urge to vomit, the sense of abandon and the extreme need to itch, he would bare it out. Surely he couldn’t just go into Louis room and ask him to stay with him? What was he 3?

No, he would be fine. He’d handled something like this before. He was strong, he was confident, he was completely capable of handling himself.

That’s just what he needed to do.

-/-/-/-

“Oi losers wake up,” Louis laughed, shaking awake Zayn and Harry, “Movies over.”

Zayn groaned loudly swatting away Louis hand, “Fuck off,”

Harry squinted, blinking his eyes, “What time is it?” he asked.

“About 12, thought you’d want to sleep in your own beds?” Louis joked.

Niall who had woken from the commotion just grunted, “How lovely,”

“Mm fine on the couch, fuck off,” Zayn snapped, snuggling further into the couch and wrapping the blanket around his head.

Louis just shrugged, helping Niall off the floor, “Suit yourself,”

“Where’s Liam?” Harry asked concerned.

He turned to Louis with his big brown eyes, hair messy from the nap and the oldest noticed how much younger and vulnerable Harry looked when he was worried, “I put him to bed, he’s fine.” Louis assured.

“You’re sure?” Niall asked, who was just as worried about the Wolverhampton, just far less expressive about it then Harry.

“I’m positive I tucked him in and everything,” Louis smirked.

Niall eyed the boy off sleepily, weighing up whether he should believe him or contemplating if he was just being told what he wanted to hear in hopes he’d go to sleep easier. He seemed to take the answer as a plausible one though when he said, “Alright, I’m gonna bed then. Don’t wake me up unless Liam gets worse tomorrow,” The blonde said as he trotted off to bed.

“Do you need me to tuck you in too Nialler?” Louis called out teasingly. Louis was just meet with the finger being pointed in his direction and a lovely “Bite me” from the youngest. It was too fun teasing Niall on a normal day but when he was sleepy Louis took extra fun in it. Actually it was more fun teasing all the boys when they were sleepy.

Louis turned to Harry, “Would you like me to tuck you into bed then Curly?” He smirked.

Harry rolled his eyes playfully, “I think I’ll manage, you’re sure he’s fine?” He asked biting his lip.

Louis sighed, “I swear Liam is fine, you need to relax Harry. Liam’s not mad.”

Harry blushed a little, “I know. It’s just weird him being sick,”

“I know, but I’ve got it covered. He is in good hands as you sleep,” Louis assured.

Harry eyed him off, a knowing look in his eyes that almost mad Louis feel uncomfortable, “Yes, I can see that.”

“What do you mean?” It was Louis turn to be confused.

“Nothing,” Harry said slowly, “You just seem very protective of Liam,”

“I’m protective of everyone,” Louis defended.

Harry shrugged, “Yea, it just seems different with Liam.”

Louis narrowed his eyes, “How different?”

“I donno, just different,” He said slowly.

Louis could tell by the look in his eyes that Harry knew more than he was leading on, or wanted to ask more at least, but decided against it, “Doesn’t matter, anyway I’m going to bed. Goodnight Lou,” The younger smiled cheekily and headed to his room leaving a very confused Louis.

“This is not over Styles,” Louis muttered to himself as the bedroom door shut.

He frowned, what did Harry mean? How was it different? How was he more protective? Was it a bad thing? Had Liam noticed it too? Had the other boys noticed? Was he being too protective? What did he mean by different?

Far too many questions whirled through Louis’s head and it was too late to consider any of them. Instead he walked back over to Zayn, who was now sleeping contently on the couch. He put his hands on his hips, contemplating whether he should move the boy or not. Surely the couch would be uncomfortable and he wouldn’t sleep well, and Zayn on a bad night’s sleep was not fun for anyone in the mornings. But he was just so…big, especially next to Louis who seemed to be the only one out of the band who had stopped growing as the rest of them continued to get taller.

Zayn was certainly a few inches taller than him, how was he supposed to carry him to bed? Louis sometimes doubted if he was supposed to be the responsible one sometimes, what would Liam do in this situation?

“If I even attempt to carry you to bed, you will gorge my eyes out,” Louis mumbled aloud.

Liam made this seem a lot easier then it was.

****************************************************************************

Liam groaned, what had he done to deserve this? What deity has he pissed off? What God had he royally offended to be deemed with the chickenpox? Who punishes someone with the chickenpox?

Why did he need to be punished? Liam always thought of himself as a good person. He was kind to people, caring to his girlfriend, nice to fans and he called his mother every day. Surely he didn’t deserve something as cruel as chickenpox?

It was unnatural. It was horrible. It was brutal to say the very least.

Five fucking 30 he had woken up because his head decided it didn’t want to not ache and his stomach felt like projecting up all of its content, which really in reality wasn’t that much. To top it all off his skin felt like it was on fire and he was itchy everywhere and all he wanted to do was fucking scratch.

But no, he wasn’t allowed to do that.

What had his life become too? Seriously?

Instead of lying in bed feeling sorry for himself though, he’d decided to get up and mope around the kitchen. It was far too early for anyone else to be up and even though he’d knew they’d be mad when they found out he was up alone, waking them wasn’t an option. Even if Zayn was sleeping on the couch in what looked like a very awkward position.

Instead he’d opted to making himself a cup of tea, it really didn’t sound very appealing but it was better than just sitting around doing nothing. Since when was nausea one of the symptoms of chickenpox he wondered to himself.

It wasn’t until 6:30, after two cups of tea he’d let go cold and sitting on his third as he flicking aimlessly through twitter, curled into a ball on the couch when he was greeted with someone’s presence. And it wasn’t who he’d thought it would be.

Paul who had his own key entered the motel room quietly as if not to wake anyone. Liam just frowned confused and asked, “What are you doing up at 6:30 in the morning?”

The older man almost jumped out of his skin in fright, clearly not seeing Liam or expecting anyone to be up this early, “Jesus Liam you scared the shit out of me.”

Liam smiled sheepishly and sat at the table while Paul took a seat opposite him, “Sorry,” He shrugged, “I couldn’t sleep.”

Paul frowned, “How long have you been up?”

“I donno,” Liam liked nonchalantly, “A while.”

Paul didn’t seem completely convinced but nodded anyway, it would be easier not to argue with the kid, “How are you feeling?”

“Alright,” Liam said quietly.

Paul knitted his eyebrows together, “Liam,” He said slowly. He wasn’t about to take that as a liable answer, not when it was coming from Liam of all people.

He sighed, “I’ve been better. I’m just so itchy,” he confessed.

Paul smiled, “Don’t worry you’ll feel better in a few days. Here I got you the medication, cream and oats for the bath.”

Liam scrunched his nose together at the thought of having to take a bath in oats. He hadn’t a proper bath in years, it seemed very juvenile, and he certainly didn’t like the idea of it being in oats. But he smiled at Paul, because he had gotten everything he needed and someone had finally brought the cream that was supposed to relieve him of all this discomfort.

“Thanks,” Liam smiled tentatively and sighed, “Look Paul I’m really sorry for not saying anything –“

Paul raised his hand instantly to silence the young boy, “Don’t Liam. Seriously I’m sorry for being so harsh, I was just worried. I shouldn’t have yelled at you and you shouldn’t apologise for being sick.”

Liam bit his lip, still worried that the older man was mad at him, “Yea but I should have told someone. I could have infected a lot of people and you were right to be mad.”

Paul smiled softly, Liam was too kind for his own damn good, “Seriously Liam. It’s done, we know now and you’re getting better. Stop stressing, and worry about getting healthy. I shouldn’t have been so harsh to you when you were just sick and worried.”

Liam shrugged, “It’s okay.” He looked down avoiding the older man’s gaze.

Paul sighed, he was never very good at this stuff and he certainly didn’t want to get all tearful eyed with a teenage boy. This was not part of his job, he was meant to be their body guard, that’s it.

 He’d be lying though if he thought that’s all he was too them, and that’s all they were to him. He loved these boys, even if he didn’t say it aloud, they knew. He just wanted to protect them. Sure it was in his job description to make sure they were safe, but it went far beyond that.

One Direction had become his family. These stupid, reckless, dangerous teenagers had become his sons or little brothers. He hated the way they could turn him soft, but Liam with his puppy dog eyes and Niall with his baby blues and Harry with his cheeky smile instantly could have him caving. Almost everyone on management had been affected, and he was one of the closest too them. These boys brought out his soft, fatherly side and he’d be damned if he let anyone ever put a finger on them.

God he hated it sometimes.

“You know I only want to look out for you, don’t you? I want to make sure you boys are safe,” Paul said honestly. It certainly wasn’t a declaration of fatherly love and he wasn’t about to leap over the table and hug the boy, (although he’d be lying if he said Liam’s sad face didn’t make him instantly want to bring a smile to the younger’s features, he was a father after all. He was inbred with some of these parental instincts) but it was close enough and he knew Liam would understand the meaning behind the words.

Liam smiled at him, “Thanks Paul. I just didn’t want to disappoint you.”

“You can never disappoint me Li, none of you boys ever can,” Paul said honestly. As much as he’d rather not admit it and his wife was never overly thrilled with the idea, these five boys were his children. And just like any father he was always proud of them. Paul was honestly just proud some days when Harry managed to dress himself correctly or Zayn actually got out of bed or Louis didn’t spill any cereal on his pants. He was excessively ecstatic when he watched them perform, because they were exception boys and outstanding gentlemen. Who wouldn’t be proud?

“Thanks,” Liam blushed, he was grateful Paul wasn’t mad, seeing him as a male role model would have wounded him if he was.

Paul coughed awkwardly, clearly not wanting to make this anymore sentimental then it already was. He had to keep some kind of authority or the boys would start walking all over him, he couldn’t let them know to the extent of how much he cared.

“Why don’t you go take a shower and put some of that cream on, it will make you feel better.” Paul said.

Liam nodded smiling and getting up from the table, “Thanks, again.”

Liam hurried away, hoping the sincerity in his voice showed more then it said. Because he really was truly grateful. He heard bustling away on the phone and he figured Paul was probably ordering room service for breakfast or something. He wasn’t hungry but he was sure the others would be starved, especially Zayn who was going to be extra grumpy all day because of sleeping on the couch.

Liam took a long, hot, relaxing shower and after started to apply the lotion which instantly sought some relief. Thank god.

Unfortunately after he applied the weird pink ointment to his legs and stomach (and redressing in some plaid pyjama pants that he thought might be Louis’s) he realised there was no way he was going to able to apply this to his back. He sat on the edge of the bed, contemplating his options.

This strange pink lotion was amazing, instant relief set in and even if it wasn’t permanent he didn’t care. Any relief from this itchiness was a good thing. But there was no way physically possible that he could reach his back. But he needed it on his back. That was vital.

He sighed, he could call for Paul and ask him to… no. That was just weird. Sure he loved Paul and treated him like a sort of father figure, but asking the older man to rub pink ointment on his bare back was just… ugh too weird to even think about. Especially not after their awkward conversation that had just taken place. Besides, Liam didn’t particularly like being in that close contact with anyone. Sure he’d let Paul hug him and pick him up a few times (and most of those times were because he was sure Paul was just purposely trying to annoy him or Liam was simply too damn tired to care) but he did not feel comfortable with the man touching him that… intimately.

Oh god that was not the right word to use.

Paul wasn’t an option. What about one of the other guys? He sighed, he knew they’d be willing to do it, but did he want them to? He loved the boys, and they loved him. But seriously, that was weird. Too weird really. And they would give him endless shit for it.

Harry would find the whole situation far too amusing and Zayn would just tell him flat out no and Niall would probably do it but be awkward and uncomfortable the entire time. Besides he didn’t need them thinking he was any more incapable then he already had. He was supposed to be their role model, this certainly wouldn’t help his situation much.

He knew who would do it without questions and he knew who he wanted to do it (and only because he felt comfortable around him, no other reason) but even that was too weird to ask. Because he wanted another (allegedly) straight male to run pink lotion into his back to relieve him from itchiness. It was a weird request that he was sure any normal person would reject, then again his friends had never been very normal in the first place.

He sighed again, maybe he would just go without. That really seemed easier.

“Hey Liam?” A soft knock was heard on the other side of the door and Liam shot up from the noise.

“Louis?” He asked confused, wasn’t it too early for him to be up? Liam checked his phone, when did it become 8am?

“Are you okay in their? Paul said you’ve been a while?”  A worried voice replied.

Liam sighed, reluctantly opening the door, “Yea, I’m okay. Just contemplating…” He decided.

Louis smirked looking Liam up and down, and Liam suddenly felt vulnerable in front of Louis in nothing but what he was sure were the elder’s pyjama pants and no top. Especially when he had ugly red dots all over his body.

“Contemplating what? Life?” Louis joked.

Liam flushed, “You could say that.”

Louis smiled, “What’s wrong?”

Liam sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed and fiddling with the strings on his pants, “I ugh, I was just… I just…ugh,” He stuttered.

Louis looked at him confused, “Li?”

“I can’t put the stupid cream on my back,” Liam muttered highly embarrassed. He buried his face in his hands and he heard Louis let out a snicker he was clearly trying to hold in.

Although it was quite pitiful at how dejected Liam was because he couldn’t do a simple task by himself, Louis had to admit it was kind of adorable. Because when Liam was frustrated he would scrunch his face up into this pout and flush a bright red.

“Aw Liam, would you like me to help?” Louis teased playfully.

Liam rolled his eyes, “Not in your going to be a dick about it.” He mumbled childishly.

Louis laughed, “Aw it’s okay, Li-Li I’ll help you,”

Liam continued to roll his eyes but complied when Louis guided him to turn around and started to rub the cream onto his back, “You know you could have just asked one of us.” Louis commented easily.

Liam shrugged awkwardly, he wouldn’t deny it was extremely uncomfortable as Louis touched him so personally, but he had to admit they’d probably touched each other worse.

Which sounded so, so wrong.

“It’s kind of awkward,” He said.

He heard Louis laughed, “It is a little. But it could be worse, you sure you don’t need me to put it anywhere else?” He teased.

“Do you always have to be so inappropriate?”  Liam asked.

“Yep,” Louis said happily, “You know you love me.”

“Sometimes that’s debateable,” He joked.

Louis let out a fake gasp of hurt and deliberately grazed the younger’s sensitive sides smirking teasingly.

“Hey! That’s unfair,” Liam said squirming away from the older boys hands.

Louis just laughed and pulled him back onto the bed, “Don’t be such a baby,”

Liam grinned despite himself, “Leave me alone, I’m sick,” he said pitifully.

Louis laughed, “Oh so now you play the sick card?” He joked.

Liam shrugged, “It could have worked,”

Louis rolled his eyes, “Come on let’s get some breakfast,” He chucked a t-shirt at Liam, as the boy slipped it over his head.

“I just want to sleep,” Liam whined childishly. Liam was sick of being independent and strong, he just wanted to curl up and sleep, and not worry about anything. With Louis he just felt relaxed, like he could let all his guards down, and that’s exactly what he wanted to do.

Louis smiled at him sympathetically, he felt bad that Liam had been stuck with such a crappy illness but at the same time was enjoying looking after the boy far too much. It was like a constant inner battle of wanting Liam to get better but wanting him to stay sick so he could continue to look after him. Times like these though, when Liam pouted and directed his pitiful gaze in Louis direction, he would instantly take away all the pain the younger boy was feeling if he could, just so see him smile again.

Louis grabbed Liam’s wrists, pulling the boy into an unexpected but grateful hug and let the boy nuzzle his face into the crook of his neck, “I know Li,” He sighed.

Liam buried his face further into the boy, seeking out all the warmth and comfort he could get. He loved being in Louis’s arms, he felt safe.

“I don’t like being sick,” Liam mumbled against him.

He felt Louis sigh quietly and hands were pushing back his fringe gently, “I know Li, you’re gonna get better,”

“Promise?” He asked quietly. He knew it was childish and stupid, but he didn’t know until Louis had wrapped his arms around him like that, that he was feeling this upset about it.

“I promise,” Louis said, although he could hardly promise it. Louis’s heart was breaking slowly at seeing Liam so miserable. All he wanted to do was take away his pain, and it was slowly killing him that he couldn’t.

“Come on, let’s go wake up Zayn,” Louis said a mischief glint in his eyes that he hoped would cheer up the Wolverhampton.

“He’ll be mad though,” Liam whined, waking Zayn up always seemed like a fun idea at the time, but usually just go them in trouble and had the boy mad at them for days for interrupting his precious slumber.

“But it will be fun,” Louis said, “Come on Liam have a little fun, and your sick so he can’t get mad at you. Just give him those puppy dog eyes and he’ll melt. He always melts when it comes to you,” Louis bopped him on the nose affectionately for emphasis.

 

Liam rolled his eyes, but he was bored, tired and sick, and maybe seeing Zayn rage would make him feel better, “Okay.” He agreed and quickly the boys left to cause some unprecedented trouble.

If Louis couldn’t make him better, surely he could make him smile?

**************************************************************************

It turns out, waking Zayn went just like Louis had assumed.

Very badly.

Because Zayn hated to be woken up, and in the mornings he generally just hated Louis for being too excitable, so it hadn’t been an extremely hard outcome to predict really.

However just as Zayn was about to lose it because both Louis and Liam had jumped on him, waking him from a very, very good dream, Liam instead of getting off had straddled his hips and looked directly into his eyes with a cheeky grin exclaiming, “Good morning Zayn.”

Zayn literally growled because who did Liam think he was? Just because he was sick and looked ridiculously adorable in his stupid pyjama pants and curly hair with that stupid little smile, didn’t mean he wasn’t about to get yelled at. It was far too early to be woken up by anybody. But then the little brat had rested his damn head on Zayn’s damn chest and literally nuzzled his face into it. So now after being brutally awoke by Liam and Louis at god knows what time in the morning, he was trapped on the couch with the sick brunette snuggling into his chest.

He wanted to groan, he knew what they were playing at, it had been Louis idea no doubt.

But what the fuck was he supposed to do with the sick, vulnerable, fucking adorable Liam cuddling up to him? Liam had now practically settled himself on Zayn’s chest, refusing to let go as his hands clutched his shirt.

Zayn sighed, because dammit nobody was going to get yelled at this morning, fucking stupid Liam. And not only because his stupid band mate was more adorable then Niall when he was sleepy, but because he doubted Liam nuzzling him was fully Louis’s idea. Liam was never cuddly or affectionate, so for him to initiate this kind of contact with Zayn was rare. Clingy, sick Liam was coming out, and Zayn would be damned if he was the reason he sent him back into his shell. Even if this was an ungodly hour to be up.

Zayn could hardly deny Liam on a normal day, so he wasn’t stupid enough to be mean to him when he was sick and clingy. God how he hated Liam sometimes.

“God morning Liam,” Zayn sighed, opting to put his arms around the smaller boys waist and pull him close, running fingers over the boys back like he knew he liked, “How did you sleep?”

Liam shrugged choosing not to look anyway but continue to bury his face in Zayn’s chest, “I’ve slept better.”

Zayn sighed, knowing that meant it had probably been a terrible night for the boy. Fuck this.

He turned to Louis who looked about as concerned as he probably did. The older shrugged though, indicating there was nothing else they could really do unless Liam came to them. Another reason Zayn couldn’t just throw the sick boy off him.

Louis’s concerned look turned into a smirk though, clearly silently indicating that Liam had him wrapped around his finger, even if the younger wasn’t aware of it. Zayn would have loved to retort back that Liam’s fucking got them all wrapped around his finger and just doesn’t realise, but refrained himself as Liam fiddled with the buttons of his shirt he’d forgotten to remove last night - much like a child would.

When he was like this (Zayn wouldn’t admit his favourite type of Liam) it was hard to picture Liam as anything but an adorable 3 year old stuck in an 18 year olds body. People would be amazed that he was usually the one that kept everyone in line and reprimanded them all. Granted, it didn’t always work and they would sometimes pinch his check or pull him into a friendly head lock because he was just that cute, but usually they only did that to annoy him. Most of the time he could be quiet menacing and they always listened to him.

Right now though he was anything but, he was childish and clingy, and cute. Zayn liked this the best, because although he’d never admit it, he liked it when he could treat Liam like his little brother. It meant Liam was safe and happy and not worrying. He worried too much for it to be normal, so any circumstance when he wasn’t was always a good thing.

Zayn sighed, god he was such sucker for his band mates. What the fuck had happened to him? Didn’t he used to be perceived as tough?

 

“Who wants breakfast?” Louis asked happily, trotting over to the kitchen where Paul was watching the scene amused.

 

“I’m not hungry,” Liam mumbled.

Zayn frowned at this, forgetting Louis’s teasing glance, “You should try to eat something Li,” he said running his fingers through the boy’s hair.

Liam shrugged, “Do I have to?”

“Can you try?” Zayn asked, “For me?”

He felt Liam sigh, “Okay. I want toast.”

Zayn smiled, “Whatever you want,” little did the boy know he’d probably get anything he wanted, whenever he wanted it at this rate.

Liam smiled and with one last squeeze of Zayn’s middle Liam hoped off him and made his way slowly to the table where he sat by Paul, tucking his legs under him.

Zayn watched him as he curled into himself and Louis happily chatted away absentmindedly as he made the boy’s toast.

“You are so whipped,”

Zayn shot up and glared at the boy who was looking at him knowingly with his trademark cheeky grin on his face.

“Shut up,” Zayn growled, “Like you’re not.”

Harry put his hands up in defence, “Nobody is as whipped as you Zayn, face it. Liam could ask you to shave you’re head and you would.”

Zayn sent him a threatening glare but it was contradicted when he mumbled, “I would not.”

Harry smirked, “I don’t know…”

“Shut up Styles,” Zayn said whacking the younger on the arm, “Besides no one is a whipped as Louis,”

He indicated to the pair at the table, Louis leaning over Liam as he buttered his toast for him.

Harry’s eyebrows shot up, “No, you’re not wrong there.” He said slowly.

Zayn turned to Harry and frowned, “what?” the way Harry had said that and was looking at the two made him believe he knew more than he was leading on.

Harry shrugged, “I’m not too sure yet,”

Zayn just continued to frown, “What?” He asked again annoyed, now the younger wasn’t making any sense.

“I’ll get back to you on that,” And with that Harry went over to the table, smiling knowingly at Louis and Liam and leaving a very confused and pissed off Zayn standing alone. Zayn hated being out of the loop, although he doubted anyone but Harry was in on this particular loop. Harry could be quiet strange sometimes.

“Who does that kid think he is? Fucking yoda or something?”

-/-/-/-

In retrospect, Niall really should have seen this coming.

The Irishmen wasn’t truly sure why they’d left him in charge of Liam for a few hours while they went to the supermarket to get supplies, but he had a feeling from the beginning that it wasn’t a very good idea to leave him alone with a sick person. Not a really sick person like Liam at least. But then again, he did want to prove himself to the other boys. Sure, he was sometimes considered the ‘baby’ of the group and he milked it to a certain extent letting people believe he was just that innocent. But he was actually anything of the sort, and Liam hadn’t shown any signs of worsening so it should have been an open and shut case. Nothing would go wrong and he’d earn brownie points for looking after daddy direction.

In theory, only good could come from this situation. 

That was until he heard what sounded like violent heaving coming from the bathroom.

He was pretty sure vomiting wasn’t a symptom when he had the chickenpox, so what the actual fuck?

Liam had been fine this morning, Niall had witnessed the boy being perfectly fine at breakfast, and he’d even managed to eat a piece of toast. A full piece, granted Louis had to coax it into the boy and there had been several failed attempts at the ‘airplane’ entering his mouth which did not end well but with previously chewed bits of toast aiming at the eldest’s forehead. But eventually he’d eaten it and nobody could be unhappy with that.

Progressively though, he hadn’t been getting any better. After sitting up and watching TV with them for a while, choosing to lie across Zayn and Louis, Niall had watched the brunette get paler and more fidgety. The movies were doing nothing to lift his spirits and Louis was offering him water ever other minute so it wasn’t surprising when he said he was going to take a nap. The most surprising thing out of that sentence had been the use of the world ‘nap’ and the fact he was admitting to taking one, because that was very unlike Liam.

Now though, Niall banging on the bathroom door because he was locked out, well that was very like Liam.

Niall groaned. ‘We’ll just go get some stuff from the super market’ they said, ‘we’ll only be a few hours’ they said. ‘Liam would be fine’, they’d said, ‘he’d probably just sleep’.

Well clearly no one had accounted the fact that Liam had looked like crap and was ultimately sick with god only knows the fuck what.

What they should have done was taken into consideration unpredictability, Niall blamed his stupid band mates for the whole situation he was now stuck in.

“Liam! Seriously open the door!” Niall shouted as he once again banged on the locked bathroom door.

No more then 20 minutes after the other boys had left to get ‘supplies’ had Niall heard the dreaded sound of bare feet patter into the bathroom, slam the door close and then lovely puking sounds following. After shouting several colourful curses at whatever higher power had gotten them into this mess Niall quickly headed to the bathroom.

Only to find the door fucking locked. Locked.

Yes. Liam had made sure before he started puking to lock the door. Why?

To keep the other boys from illness? To ensure they stayed away from the germs? To prevent himself from further humiliation?

Because he was a fucking retard?

Niall wasn’t entirely sure why, but he couldn’t believe Liam had the nerve to actually lock it. Of all the times he decides to be Daddy Direction he had to choose the time he was vomiting violently into the crapper. Did he have a death wish?

“I’m fine Ni,” Liam said weakly through the door.

Even if a particularly vicious wave of hurling didn’t follow that sentence Niall still wouldn’t have bought it.

“Seriously Liam you need to let me in!” Niall shouted aggressively, his anger getting the better of him. He had to remind himself to stay calm, this was Liam remember.

“No I’m fine, you could get sick. I’m alright,” Liam tried again.

Niall groaned loudly, “Liam open the fucking door now! This is not a joke!”

“I’m fine, just a bit of dry reaching, it will pass,” Liam assured him.

Niall rolled his eyes, he knew dry reaching. He’d had enough sadistic hangovers to know what dry reaching sounded like and the noise coming from the bathroom wasn’t it. Niall didn’t even know what was left in the boys system to puke up, but something was defiantly coming out. Maybe Liam’s stomach had moved on from actual solids and now it was just stomach acid and organs deciding to come up.

After banging a few more times on the door, throwing some more colourful curse words out there that were not directed at Liam and his “fucking stupid ass pride” the blonde realised that this was getting him nowhere.

He pulled out his phone and pressed speed dial.

“Sup Nialler, how is little Liam doing this afternoon?” Louis Tomlinson’s voice happily chatted away.

“He locked himself in the bathroom,” Niall said bluntly as he leant against the door, no use in beating around the bush, Liam was going to kill himself if they didn’t do something soon.

“What?” Louis asked surprised, “Why is he locked in the bathroom?”

“Besides because he’s fucking stupid?” Niall asked, “Because he’s puking and doesn’t want to get me sick,”

Another wave of reaching had Niall cringing.

“He did what?” Louis asked and Niall could hear Harry and Zayn on the other end of the phone freaking out, the eldest however managed to remain semi calm, although Niall could tell by the tone of his voice it was an act for the other boys.

“Yea, I don’t know. I can’t help him and it sounds violent. Are you supposed to puke when you’ve got the chickenpox?” Niall asked, he didn’t want to lead on how worried he was but he was pretty sure this wasn’t normal.

He could feel Louis literally frowning on the other end of the phone, “I don’t know. I have heard when you’re older the symptoms can be different though. Maybe this is just a part of it?” He didn’t sound convinced but it was at least a start.

“Right, well you’re going to need to get over here so we can break the door down or something,” Niall said, frowning at the locked door.

Louis sighed, “We’ll be there in 10. And make sure he knows that once he comes out of there, we’re going to kill him.”

“Sure thing,” Niall said hanging up.

That was something he could do.

****************************************************************************

It had taken a lot of banging, shouting, cursing and coaxing to finally get Liam out of the locked bathroom, which in reality none of them really should have expected anything less.

That didn’t mean however that Louis wasn’t going to murder the stubborn boy when they did finally get him out. Did Liam have a momentary lapse of insanity? Locking himself away in the bathroom, for god’s sake, did he really think that was going to help? That they wouldn’t completely freak out on him?

Louis didn’t understand what went through the boys head sometimes.

After getting home as quickly as humanly possible, breaking several road rules on the way, they’d made it into the motel relatively quickly. Heading straight for the bathroom and ignoring check in and possibly some fans they found Niall leaning against the bathroom door banging the back of his head on it repetitively, Louis almost felt bad for the guy at the look of absolute relief on his face when he saw them. Like finally someone would be able to talk some sense into the other boy.

It had taken them almost 15 minutes before Liam had reluctantly agreed to open the door, and it hadn’t been a pretty or productive few minutes. Louis had first tried to calmly convince the boy gently that everything would be fine and they would help him. He knew it was so stupid and irresponsible of Liam to do this, but the younger was clearly terrified. It was chicken pox he wasn’t supposed to be vomiting. Liam was scared and vulnerable, and Louis could easily tell he was silently crying from his voice being so shaky when he answered them. Instead of being a normal person though and letting his friends help him, he’d retreated back into himself, taking the defence mechanism as soon as it got to a point he couldn’t handle.

Louis hated it, but he didn’t want to start yelling at the boy through the wall straight away. Because while he was terrified and shaking in fury and just downright concerned as fuck, he knew the emotions Liam was feeling were far worse. He honestly couldn’t be entirely mad at Liam for locking himself away.

“Liam, its Louis. Mate please open up,” He tried, his voice as soothing and calm as possible.

“I’m fine,” was Liam’s reply, “It’s okay, I just need to get it out of my system. I’ll be fine.”

“Li, we’re only here to help. Please open up,”

“I’m fine Lou,”

“Li-Li we only want to help. We’re really worried, please just let us help,” He’d practically begged.

It was silent for a little while and Louis thought he had actually gotten through to the boy. However after a wave of nausea and violent reaching, followed by a pitiful, ‘I’m fine.’ Louis was doubtful they’d ever get the sick boy out of the bathroom.

From there, everything was just anarchy.  Zany started shouting about how he was being ‘fucking unreasonable’ and Harry was banging on the door so pale and worried Louis was afraid the youngest might be the one to pass out on them.

The promise of food, sleep, cuddles and even space couldn’t convince Liam to leave and threatening to kick his ass to ‘fucking China’ from Zayn didn’t do any either. It was only after threatening to call his mother and Paul telling them both that Liam had locked himself in the bathroom and was ‘vomiting violently and balling like a baby’ so they would need to get here right away to look after him, was when Liam agreed to come out. And that was only if they promised not to freak out.

Amusingly, Zayn had instantly just slammed his fist against the door again claiming that he would be lucky if he didn’t tie his ass to the bed so don’t push his goddamn luck.

Either way, Liam had agreed to open the door and smiled weakly at the four boys who were standing outside.

“I don’t think I’m going to puke again,” Liam said sheepishly.

Zayn rolled his eyes and muttered ‘fucking twat’ before storming off for a smoke to calm down and Niall just banged his head against the wall again.

Louis laughed despite himself, because this band could get into some really stupid situations sometimes.

Quickly he pulled Liam into a massive bear hug, not caring if he was actually suffocating the boy or not just glad that he was alright. He hated the fact that he couldn’t fix Liam, all he honestly wanted to do at this point was just hold him in his arms to make sure he was safe.

Naturally he knew Liam probably wouldn’t appreciate that, so he pulled away from the hug reluctantly and took Liam by the arm settling the boy into his bed silently, Harry and Niall trailing behind like lost puppies. Louis didn’t mind though, at least if they were following he knew where they were.

After settling Liam into bed comfortably in fresh pyjamas, a brand new water bottle, bucket next to him and Niall and Harry either side of him on the massive king sized bed, he put on the Lion King for them to watch. He gave the boy a stern look that clearly said don’t you dare move and instructed Niall and Harry to get him if they needed anything or anything went wrong.

He left Liam lying on the bed, between his two younger band mates who looked torn between being furious at him and completely absorbed in concern. He could hear them bickering, Liam claiming they were going to get sick so they should move and Niall telling him to simply shut up and Harry had just taken to using Liam as a human pillow, cuddling up to his side.

He knew Liam would hate it, but at the same time adore the attention. Because he loved both Niall and Harry and he knew being squashed between them was never a bad thing, especially for Liam.

Louis sighed, heading to the kitchen in an attempt to make something that Liam wouldn’t puke back up as he called the only person who would know what to do in a situation like this.

Louis called him mom.

“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the phone said sleepily.

“Hey mom,” He said sheepishly, damn he forgot about the time zone, “It’s not too late is it?”

Jay chuckled, “Of course not, how are you baby?”

Louis sighed, “I’m good thanks, how about you?”

“What’s wrong baby?” She completely ignored his question. Louis almost chuckled, she could read him like a book even when they weren’t in the same country.

Louis chose not to beat around the bush, he needed help and him mom was the only one he felt comfortable asking and who would know what to do, “You know how Liam’s sick with Chickenpox?” He asked.

“Yea sweetie, how is the poor thing?”

“He’s had better days to be honest,” He confessed.

“What’s wrong? Is there anything I can do?” The concern in her voice was over whelming and it made Louis want to hug her.

“He’ll be okay, it’s just his symptoms have kind of gotten a bit worse and we weren’t sure if they were normal. Like we know itching and headaches and fevers are normal when you’ve got the chickenpox, but what about vomiting?” he asked trying to sound cool about it, even though he was far from it.

“Vomiting? Well it’s not really normal when you’re younger. But you have to remember Lou Liam’s 18 years old. The chickenpox when you’re older can be much worse and symptoms can be very different,” She said.

“So vomiting is normal?” He asked.

She paused, “It’s not completely normal, but I doubt it is something very serious. Was he coughing a lot before? Some people can cough themselves sick.”

“I don’t know, I’ll have to ask Niall. We left him with Niall before he started vomiting,”

Jay chuckled a little, “To be honest sweetie unless it continues to a very bad and violent level I would just say that’s how his body is reacting to the virus. Just make sure you keep an eye on it and if it gets worse call the doctor or take him to the hospital.”

Louis bit his lip, “So he’ll be fine for now you think?”

“Yes I think so, does he seem okay now?”

“Yea, he seems better now that he got it out of his system,” He said, Liam did look a bit better when he was cuddled in bed with Harry and Niall before. Although that could be due to his company not his puking.

“Just make sure you keep an eye on it and he will be fine pumpkin, it sounds like you’re doing a good job looking after him,” Jay said.

Louis smiled, “I’m trying, it’s hard looking after Daddy Direction.”

“I’d imagine it would be, don’t worry hun, it will be fine.”

He smiled genuinely feeling much better that his mom didn’t think it was terminal, “Thanks mom,”

“Its no problem, so you’re fine sweetie?”

Louis thought before answering that question. Should he tell her that Liam being sick was making him far more stressed out then it should be? And that he was worried his feelings for the younger male were not completely platonic? And that maybe his feelings for the other gender weren’t completely platonic either? Or that he was about to murder Zayn if he yelled at Liam one more time? Or he had a jealous feeling in the pit of his stomach when anyone but him touched Liam? And that maybe he was becoming too possessive of the Wolverhampton? How he wasn’t sleeping properly at night because strange dreams and worry were consuming him?

“’I’m fine mom, thanks,” he said. He wasn’t ready to voice these thoughts yet, he hadn’t fully comprehended them himself. He would wait.

“Okay hun, we’ll I’m going back to sleep. I love you, take care of Liam.” She said.

“Thanks, goodnight mom. I love you,” and with that hung up the phone.

Louis sighed, rubbing his eyes harshly with the back of his hands. This was all too stressful. Everything was much easier when Daddy direction was in charge, he couldn’t do this. How did Liam always make Zayn calm down when he was moody and raging at everyone?

How did Liam make Harry content when he was worrying too much? How did he comfort Niall, bringing that big smile back to his face?

Liam kept them all in line, he did so much more then Louis had ever imagined. How the hell did he do it all and not even go appreciated for it? Louis hadn’t taken over more than 3 days ago and he couldn’t hack it. Liam made it look so easy.

 

But then again maybe Liam didn’t have to deal with the conflicting feelings for any of the other boys. Liam probably didn’t want all of Louis’s attention purely on him. That thought shattered him a little.

God Louis was being such a creep. Liam was sick, completely vulnerable and helpless, putting his trust into the boys to look after him. And all Louis could think about was taking advantage of him. Louis really needed to sort his priorities. Get Liam better first, then deal with these, feelings. Afterwards.

Focus, make Liam better.

But first, make sure Zayn wasn’t going to punch a wall. He didn’t know how he’d explain that one to management.

Louis quietly made his way outside, watching as the Bradford boy took a long breath from his cigarette. God how he wished he’d give them up.

“Hey,” Louis said quietly, taking a seat on the balcony with the boy.

Zayn nodded in acknowledgement.

“You okay?” Louis asked.

Zayn let out a small chuckle, “Yea I’m fine.”

Louis looked him over, he didn’t look mad. Just stressed, worried. It was easier for Zayn to come across as mad then concerned though, Louis had learnt that early about him. He didn’t like to deal with his emotions, it was completely and utterly unhealthy, but he seemed to deal with it alright. He knew he had all the boys he could turn to if anything went really wrong, Louis was always there with open arms if Zayn wanted to talk about it, or just wanted someone to sit with. Zayn would usually just rather cuddle someone then actually talk about it (and nobody ever cuddled Zayn, Zayn held you in his arms).

“Liam’s just a retard is all,” Zayn muttered bitterly but Louis could hear the underlining concern in his voice that he was trying to hide.

Louis laughed, “He can be.”

“He should have let us in,” Zayn said.

“He should have,” Louis agreed.

Zayn threw the cigarette on the ground and grinded it on his boot, “Is he okay now?” he asked.

Louis nodded, “Curled up in bed with Harry and Niall.”

Zayn smiled slightly, “Is he going to be okay?”

Louis nodded again, “Yea. I don’t think he’s getting worse. He might have just been getting rid of anything bad in his system,”

It was Zayn’s turn to nod, “He can just be so stupid sometimes, we only want to help him.”

“I know, and he knows that too. He’s just, proud,” Louis suggested.

“Stupid,” Zayn corrected.

“Well you can be stupid when you’re sick as well Zayn,” Louis reminded, cringing at all the times books and inane objects have been chucked at his head that Zayn had aimed at him while sick.

“True,” Zayn laughed lightly, “But it’s weird when it’s Liam.”

Louis sighed, it was weird when it was Liam. Because he just wasn’t know for getting sick. Liam was the healthy one, the one that looked after them. This was just so unprecedented everyone had to tread lightly. They’d figure it out though, that Louis was sure of. It just seemed after this puking incident it had really opened all their eyes to just how sick Liam really was, and how much he didn’t know how to take their help.

“He’ll be fine Z,” Louis assured the younger boy. Sometimes he forgot that Zayn was actually a year younger than him, still in his teens. It was weird really, considering if anyone was going to be the oldest it really should be Zayn, as Louis could hardly be considered mentally older than him. But times like this Louis knew that Zayn turned to him, they all turned to him. Not as much as they initially did when they started the band, then he had been the 18 year old going on 19 that they all looked up to. That initial trust and power certainly hadn’t lasted as long as it could have, but to an extent they continued to look to him when things became hard. Now, without the usual Liam to go to it was essential.

With Harry and Niall though he was used to it, they were Harry and Niall. He wouldn’t expect any less. Zayn usually confided in Liam when he had a deep problem though, he came to Louis when he wanted a partner in crime. Liam and him got along much faster because they were very similar. They were both introverted and picked on at school. To an extent as geeky as each other and they liked their own company and the quiet that came with it. Zayn felt he could relate much easier to Liam and Louis knew that’s why he went to him first.

Over time of course both boys because more extroverted and loud, Zayn was his favourite partner in crime nowadays, and Liam had certainly exited his shell (to an extent). Moments like these though he realised how much these boys needed him, they needed him as much as he needed them.

Zayn nodded, “I know,”

Louis smiled and they sat in comfortable silence for a while enjoying the peacefulness, Louis was glad he could help. Even if it was just a little bit, he certainly wouldn’t be taking over the role as Daddy direction any time soon and would be grateful when Liam got better so he could take it back, but he thought he could be doing a worse job.

“So,” Zayn broke the silence, “When are you going to tell him?”

Louis narrowed his eye brows confused, “Tell who what?” he asked.

“Liam,” Zayn said cryptically.

“Tell Liam what?” Louis asked slowly.

Zayn gave him a look that clearly said are you crazy, “Come on Lou, I’m not blind.”

“But you aren’t making any sense,” Lou retorted a little concerned as to what Zayn was getting at.

“Even Harry figured it out Lou, you’re not that inconspicuous,” Zayn teased playfully pushing his shoulder.

Louis frowned, “I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about,”

Zayn rolled his eyes standing up, “I think it’s cute. But maybe just wait until he’s better,”

“Zayn,” Louis said trying to hide the blush he was sure that was forming on his checks, how the fuck did Zayn and Harry work it out when he wasn’t even sure what their was to work out?

“Don’t worry Lou, he likes you back,” Zayn winked and with that he walked away, probably to go check on Liam. Louis sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. Was he really that obvious?


	3. Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly applaud you if you have gotten this far, sorry if it seems a bit repetitive? It made more sense when it was in 15 parts I swear :) Thanks guys!

What frustrated Liam most about the whole having chicken pox thing, wasn’t the fact that he was unhealthy and it wasn’t the fact that his friends saw him as incompetent. It wasn’t even the being babied part. Because after the few days he’d pretty much gotten over that, sure he didn’t like being sick and he didn’t like being the reason his friends were constantly worrying. He particularly really didn’t appreciate the fact that they treated him like a child, because he certainly wasn’t. But he’d managed to kind of get over that to an extent and accept they were trying to help.

He might even go so far to say that he sort of liked all the attention they were giving him. Well, he didn’t like that baby voices and occasional teasing, and he really didn’t like making them concerned. But he would be lying if he said he didn’t like the way Zayn would hold him close making him feel protected. Or the way Harry would cuddle up to his side like a little lost puppy craving his affection. Or how Niall would dote on him, giving him anything and everything he asked for, sometimes he didn’t even need to ask for it. And while he would never say it aloud, he especially enjoyed the fact that all of Louis attention was him. Louis would drop anything in a heartbeat for him, he was at his side constantly, hugging him whenever he needed it, checking his temperature, fluffing his pillows. He was Louis’s main priority, and he soaked up all the attention from the older.

Of course Louis was quite busy with everything at the moment, trying his best to take over the role of the responsible one in One Direction. Liam thought he was doing a pretty decent job at it too, he was certainly trying his best at least. Usually it was rare Liam got all of Louis’s attention. Typically he would be mucking around with Harry, or cuddling Niall or causing havoc with Zayn. Now however it seemed like all the eldest’s priorities were on Liam, and maybe he enjoyed it just that little bit too much.

However, the illness certainly wasn’t all perks, what was really proving most difficult was the constant itch. Because it really was no longer an itch, it was pain. The chicken pox had moved from this irritating itch, to this painful infuriation that was preventing him from most things. Honestly now he just wanted to sleep and not wake up, he was in so much fucking pain he didn’t want to feel anymore. He wanted to cry, he wanted to sob, he wanted someone to hold him and make it go away. Because he just didn’t want to do it anymore.

Maybe he was being dramatic, but he didn’t care. Not after what he woke up to this morning.

 This morning, he had woken up to chickenpox in his mouth. His mouth, was that even fucking possible? Not only this, but they were also on his throat, causing so much pain to bloody swallow it brought tears to his eyes.

He was pathetic, he was pitiful and all he wanted was for the world to swallow him whole. What was he supposed to do now?

After the horrific realisation that he could barely swallow, let alone speak he decided to trug his way out of bed at 9am to find someone to make him feel better. At this point Liam was beyond caring about how he came across now, he was sick of trying to be Daddy Direction, or the tough guy or the one who could handle this by himself. Because he no longer was.

He didn’t want to say it aloud, but he really just wanted his mom. You know when you get so sick, to the point where you know your mom is the only one who knows you well enough and holds you just right that she is the only person in the world who is going to make you better? Liam had entered that point, and she was miles away. Now he was just stuck with his band mates.

As much as he truly did love them, they weren’t his mom. He really wanted only her right now. That thought made him want to cry. God when did he get so pathetic?

As soon as he exited the bedroom four pairs of eyes fell on him and all frowned in concern, he must look even worse then he felt. Because he knew he looked liked he’d given up, like all his walls and defences were down. Because bring on the babying, bring on the embarrassing pet names and endless teasing. Someone just fucking hold him before he fell apart.

“Li, you okay?” Louis asked coming up to him, instantly seeing it in his eyes that he was far from okay.

Liam sighed, as much as he really, really wanted to break down right there having Louis hold him telling him it would be alright, he knew he had to try and pretend a little bit longer. Even if the sickness was becoming a clear battle that Liam was ready to surrender to.

He shrugged in response, hands buried deep in his hoodie pockets, choosing not to make eye contact with any of the boys out of shear fear he’d break down. He had to keep some of his dignity after all.

Louis just frowned eyeing him off concerned, “Li what’s wrong? How do you feel?”

He could feel all the other boys staring at him expectantly.

“My throat hurts,” Liam said, however it came out more like a whisper because it was painful to talk.

They all got up quickly when they heard his voice so weak and he didn’t miss the anxious looks they all shared, Louis walked him over to the table and saw him down, “My god you sound awful, Li. What the hell happened over night?”

The boy just shrugged pathetically, “I think there on my throat,” He whispered dejectedly.

Realisation dawned on all the boys and then quickly turned to sympathy, “That happened to my sister,” Harry said cringing, because he remembered when it happened to her and it wasn’t pretty.

“Aw Li,” Zayn said uncharacteristically and patted his back with soothing circles, “It’ll be okay.”

Liam just looked up at them all rather pitifully, “It hurts,” he mumbled.

If it was possible for Louis’s heart to break anymore then it was, it then just snapped in half completely. Because he hated seeing Liam in any pain and this was just unbearable. Louis wrapped his arms around Liam and the younger boy rested his head against his chest, welcoming the warmth and willing himself not to let tears fall from his eyes.

Harry and Louis shared concerned looks, neither actually very sure what to do at this point, so Louis just continued to hold him.

“Do you want something to eat?” Niall suggested, anything to maybe see Liam not looking so glum.

Liam shook his head quickly, rejecting any offer or food, “I don’t think I could swallow it anyway,” He tried to keep his voice light, hoping Niall wouldn’t be offended. Clearly from the guilty expression on the blondes face it didn’t work.

“Sorry,” Niall mumbled, “That was stupid.”

Liam sighed, burying his face into Lou’s chest as the older boy softly stroked his hair. Louis just sighed, “How about we just lie down Liam, put on a movie?” He suggested. It was the only thing he could possibly think of to make the boy feel slightly better right now. And honestly all Louis really wanted to do was hold the boy, hoping to bring him a little bit of comfort in his hour of illness.

Liam nodded, “Sounds good-”

“You’re going to have to stop talking though,” Harry said sternly interrupting the Wolverhampton suddenly.

Liam looked up at the curly haired boy confused, “But-“

“No, It’s clearly hurting your throat and talking is not going to make it any better. When it happened to my sister that’s what my mom made her do so she wouldn’t hurt her vocal chords further. No more talking from now on,” The younger said seriously, “We can’t have it getting worse. Not if you want to sing again.”

Liam frowned not liking that idea very much even if his throat was killing him.

“Harry’s right Li, no more talking. Only nods or shakes of the head, come on lets go watch a movie,” Louis smiled at the right pout Liam was sending the younger, as if outraged Harry was giving him orders. Harry was right though, talking obviously was hurting him and he couldn’t risk damaging his voice. Despite how cute defiant Liam looked, Louis knew they were going to have to prevent him from talking and he knew it wouldn’t be an easy task.

He guided the boy over to the couch, Liam sending what was supposed to be a glare at the younger which in his sick state just looked cute. Nobody was going to tell him that though, he wouldn’t appreciate it much.

Picking a movie when Liam wasn’t actually allowed to talk proved more difficult then they’d all thought. Because whenever Liam went to open his mouth he’d be violently shushed by the rest of the boys or a hand would go over his mouth. That had actually only happened once and Liam had proceeded to lick Nialls hand as it went over his mouth, making the boy pull away in disgust as Liam sent daggers his way, clearly not impressed.

Louis had just giggled as Niall whipped his hand on his jeans muttered something about ‘disgusting’ and Louis pulled Liam to his chest, settling them both on the couch. Liam blushed a little, never one to take this sort of affection well. But then Louis started playing with his hair that had been left curly for the last few days and it was too relaxing not to melt into the boys touch. Louis knew exactly how to make Liam practically purr at the contact and within minutes of sitting down Liam’s mind was already off his sore throat and contently snuggled into Louis chest as fingers made their way through his hair soothingly.

He could feel Louis chest raise in what he assumed was a chuckle, because he knew he must look either pretty stupid or, as Louis like to refer him to as, adorable lying on top of the boy and sinking into his touch. But Louis had mastered this whole soothing thing and was taking full advantage of Liam in his almost comatose state, poking his cheek to prove just that. Liam groaned a little and pathetically tried to swat the elders hand away. Louis just laughed, pulling the boy closer to him and continuing to play with his hair again, he liked being able to make Liam relax, especially when he was feeling so sick. But he wouldn’t admit he liked to have the boy at his whim more, sleepy and adorable and easily submissive to Louis. Liam rarely let him hold him like this, Louis cherished every moment he got to.

Liam who had now settled back down in Louis’s sturdy arms could see Harry and Zayn laughing at him as they sorted through movies trying to find one to watch, but at this stage he just didn’t care. They could laugh at him all they wanted, he was in Louis strong arms and he hadn’t felt this safe or content in ages, even if Louis was enjoying him sick and silent just a little too much. They were probably just jealous they weren’t him anyway.

“Which one Li?” Zayn asked holding the Lion King, Aristocats and Up in his direction.

Liam, not bothering to move an inch where he was comfortably seated on Louis just looked at them confused, he was pretty sure he wasn’t allowed to say anything or he’d get poked or hushed or worse a hand over his mouth again (of course he’d assumed Niall had learnt) so instead just shrugged.

Zayn sighed, “That’s not an answer.”

“He’s not allowed to talk remember?” Niall stated obviously, “You have to hold them up one at a time,”

Harry smiled sheepishly clearly forgetting the order he had given the older boy, “Oh yea.”

Liam rolled his eyes but shook his head to both the Aristocats and Up, he was pretty sure Harry must have chosen then cat movie because of his blatant obvious obsession with felines, because he certainly didn’t enjoy that movie. And he just shrugged to the Lion King. They didn’t have to watch a Disney movie, he didn’t mind watching something else, and besides if Louis kept the comforting touch up he was sure he’d conk out pretty soon. He wouldn’t bother telling them that though, especially when he wasn’t allowed to talk and he was sure they’d just argue with him anyway.

Harry seemed disappointed he didn’t pick the cat movie but didn’t say anything and Niall seemed oddly excited to watch the Lion King, “This was my favourite movie as a kid,” he exclaimed.

Louis had rolled his eyes and patted the boys head affectionately which Niall just swatted away, “It’s okay Nialler we won’t tell anyone,”

Liam frowned when he felt the hands around him move, he didn’t like it when Louis went to annoy Niall. The oldests attention was supposed to be on him. The hands were back before he could complain further though and he quickly tried to change his train of thought, because Louis was allowed to touch anyone, Liam didn’t own him. Where did that come from?

As suspected, within 20 minutes Liam had fallen asleep on the couch, his head tucked securely in Louis’s lap fingers still running through his curly hair. Louis had told Liam he liked the younger boys hair curly best because it made him look even more like a puppy dog than usual, Liam had just flushed a dark red at that and walked away muttering “weirdo”, but he wore it curly now and then for Lou.

“He asleep?” Harry whispered, all eyes turning off the movie onto the now sleeping boy.

Louis nodded, “Yea, I wonder how much sleep he got last night,” he wondered aloud.

By the looks of the other boys they were assuming the same thing as him. Not much.

“I feel so bad for him you know? It sounds like he’s in heaps of pain,” Niall said.

“And his still not telling us the full extent,” Zayn rolled his eyes but the three boys could easily see the concern behind it.

“You think?” Harry asked.

Zayn nodded confidently, “Of course not. He won’t want us to worry. I mean, at least he’s not trying to act healthy anymore and will actually let us help him. But you can see it in his eyes that he just wants to cry in either frustration or pain.”

“Probably both from the looks of it,” Niall commented.

Louis sighed running fingers through the boys hair, he knew Zayn was right. They’d known Liam long enough to know what he looked like in pain. It killed him that Liam was still being so defensive, but they were making progress which was a good thing.

“Always trying to act noble,” Zayn muttered.

“He just doesn’t want us to worry,” Louis said.

“We’re going to worry either way,” Harry pointed out.

Louis smiled, that was true.

“Well I think now is a good as time as ever to give Liam a little payback for making us worry so much,” Zayn smirked mischievously.

All the boys looked a little worried at first, and a protective hand from Louis went to hold the sleeping boys middle. Louis just rolled his eyes however when Zayn pulled out his phone and brought it to face him and the younger. Louis didn’t completely condone picking on and embarrassing Liam when he was this sick, but he smiled cheekily for the camera anyway. Embarrassing Liam was never a bad thing, because he always pouted and his cheeks would flare up red in that cute way that Louis adored. Besides it wasn’t harming him, Liam needed a dose of embarrassment now and them, it’s what kept him grounded and not so up tight.

Louis watched as Zayn typed away on his phone and Harry sniggering as he looked over his shoulder. No more than two minutes later his phone buzzed, indicating Zayn had tweeted something. He smiled fondly at the photo of the sleeping boy and him captioned “Li li is sick, poor Daddy Direction L #GetbettersoonLiLi”

He smiled, because he knew the fans would go crazy over it and they’d been so preoccupied with Liam lately they’d kind of neglected the fans. This would make them much happier.

He knew also knew however Liam would absolutely hate it and probably not talk the Bradford boy for a few hours as punishment for the photo. He wasn’t certain Liam would actually last a few hours not acknowledging Zayn though. He would probably cave earlier if the older coaxs him with promises of annoying cuddles or Zayn attacks his ticklish spot, too angsty to wait for forgiveness. That’s how it usually went anyway, and it happened more often then it probably should. Zayn wasn’t always so uptight, majority of the time he could be just as mischievous and annoying as Louis. More when they were on tour though, because they boys always got very bored and Liam was usually the unsuspecting victim. He was just so easy to pick on sometimes, who could blame them? They always made sure to shower him with cuddles that he didn’t want to make up for it though, just to make sure he knew they loved him.

Niall laughed out loud at the photo, “He’s going to kill you when he wakes up.”

Zayn shrugged, “He’s too sick to try and kill me. He’s as menacing as a puppy.” He said unconcerned.

“He’s still not going to talk to you,” Niall smirked.

“Well to even it out I could post that photo of you sleeping with that teddy bear last week on the tour bus,” Zayn teased the younger blonde.

Louis and Harry laughed at Nialls drain of colour in his face, “You wouldn’t!” He said.

“Try me,” Zayn smirked. Louis rolled his eyes, Zayn was in one of those moods where he liked to wind people up. Usually Liam or Louis were his choice targets, but clearly he thought he’d take pity on them in Liam’s current state. Niall was his new victim to embarrass, the Bradford boy wasn’t stupid enough to target Harry, that boy gave as good as he got. Then again Louis had been victim to one of Niall’s pranks before, they weren’t that pretty either.

The boys were obviously getting some kind of cabin fever at being locked inside for days, after all they were teenage boys. They were like dogs, they needed an open space to run free now and then to get rid of their energy.

Niall narrowed his eyes and pounced off the couch towards Zayn unexpectedly but the tanner was too fast and was already bolting to the kitchen.

“Get back here Malik!” Niall yelled chasing the boy.

“Catch me if you can short stuff but that photo is hitting the internet!” Zayn laughed.

Louis rolled his eyes, he’d need to take those two to the park or something to make sure this didn’t happen again.  And no, he didn’t feel bad about comparing his band mates to animals, especially if they were going to act like it.

Seriously how did Liam deal with him when he was acting twice as worse as Zayn and Niall?

Harry chuckled watching the two run around the motel room, “So when’s Liam gonna get better?” he asked hopefully.

“Not soon enough, I can’t deal with this anymore,” Louis sighed but smiling slightly, they might be insane, but he still loved them all.

************************************************************************

 “Hey has Liam tried an oat bath yet?” Harry asked randomly, the youngest glancing over to the eldest who was cradling the sick lad close to his chest.

Louis looked away from the TV which had shut off the Lion King about an hour ago averting his gaze to Harry, “No, not yet. I forgot about it.” Louis shrugged.

Zayn and Niall who had drained some of their excess energy for the day chasing each other around the house had finally settled for sitting on the ground watching transformers 3 intensely. Now they were arguing about who was hotter, Megan Fox or the new Transformers girl.

 “Do you think that would help him?” Zayn asked sceptically, oats in a bath just sounded weird, he doubted Liam would really appreciate it.

“It might not fix it but temporary relief, and he’s going to wake up eventually and we’ll need to do something to take his mind off it,” Harry argued.

Louis sighed, pushing the sleeping boy’s fringe away from his face. Liam had fallen asleep about two hours ago and he knew he would wake up any moment now and they’d need to do something, anything really to keep his mind off the pain. The fans had gotten #GetBetterSoonLiLi trending as once he’d fallen asleep allowing Zayn to post the twit pic and he honestly doubted they’d led up any time soon. Of course a few tweets weren’t going to make him better (especially not with the photo that was now on the internet of him) so they’d have to come up with something to relief some of the pain.

The oats bath seemed like a good remedy, “Yea, that’s good. When he wakes up we’ll run him the bath, and then settle him into bed with some soup? Hopefully we can get him to eat something,” Louis suggested, Liam hadn’t eaten properly in days and it was increasingly concerning the eldest. He knew Liam was usually very prominent about sick people constantly trying to eat, but they hadn’t been very pushy about the subject. Not when he’d give them his famous pout claiming he didn’t want any more, none of them were certainly going to refuse him when he looked that dejected.

Zayn shrugged, “It’s the best we can do,”

“I think we should call Paul again, you know just in case,” Harry said unevenly.

Louis clicked his tongue together, he didn’t think having Paul over would actually help Liam’s health, but he understood what Harry was getting at. They all just felt safer with Paul, Paul was there rock. Although it seemed silly, they always felt like nothing could go wrong as long as Paul had their backs, him being here would make them, plus Liam feel much better, “Yea that’s a good idea.”

Liam began to stir in Louis lap slowly, and Niall stood up, “I’ll go call Paul. See what he’s up too.”

Louis just nodded and he watched Harry and Zayn slip from the room too, hopefully to get the bath set up.

“Lou?” Liam asked sleepily, his voice hoarse and obviously still very sore. If anything it sounded worse.

Louis frowned, “You’re not supposed to be talking remember,” He scowled lightly.

Liam’s eyes were still tired but he frowned slightly at Lou, looking more adorable than usual, “Are you feeling worse?” Louis asked, “Remember nod or shake.”

Liam visibly and dramatically rolled his eyes, showing Louis he was clearly not impressed by the whole silent thing, but shook his head anyway.

Louis frowned not believing it for a moment, “Are you sure?”

Liam nodded his head, and Louis hated the fact that it was much harder to tell if Liam was lying when he didn’t have to say anything and could keep his expression as neutral as possible when answering questions. This time it was Louis’s turn to let out a satirized sigh.

“You wouldn’t lie to me would you?” Louis smirked and he was glad he managed to get a little smile from the younger boy.

Louis smiled, “Would you like to eat?”

Liam shook his head.

“Would you like water?”

He shook his head again.

Louis eyed him off, “Would you like anything?”  He asked exasperated.

Liam smirked, shaking his head once again.

Louis just narrowed his eyes playfully, “You don’t make this easy do you?”

Before Liam could shake his head or give Louis another mischievous smirk he heard Zayn yell, “Baths ready!”

At these words Liam instantly looked puzzled and a little bit worried but Louis just smiled brightly, “Bathtime Liam!” he stated far too happily for the boy.

Liam gave him he’s best ‘are-you-serious’ and ‘no-fucking-way-is-that-happening’ looks but Louis just grabbed his hands and practically dragged him to the bathroom.

He was hesitant and tried his best to resist against Louis, fighting the older boy away from the bathroom because why the hell was he being dragged to the bathtub? Of course his illness made his fighting weak and unfortunately for him Harry was exiting the bathroom as he was being dragged into it and the younger boy gently tasered his sides, forcing the boy to stop resisting and glare at him. Harry just sent him a playful grin, “We’re gonna go get some soup, we’ll be back soon. Don’t play up for Lou and Niall, Li,” he teased.

Liam rolled his eyes and looked sceptically at the bathtub, it was groggy and brown and there were weird bits floating in it. Yea, if they thought he was getting in that they had another thing coming.

“It’s an oat bath,” Louis explained at Liam’s confused look, “It’s supposed to stop the itchiness. We didn’t know what else to do but everyone suggests an oat bath. It might only be temporary relief but that’s better than nothing.”

Liam smiled softly, it was nice they were doing so much to make him feel the tiniest bit better, he knew he really didn’t deserve friends like this. Even if the bath did look disgusting.

“Alright soak in that for a while, it’s only recommended to stay in for about 30-45 minutes, if you need anything knock on the side of the wall three times loudly,” Louis said seriously demonstrating this on the wall. He knocked three times loudly and grinned at the younger boy, like knocking on a wall actually made sense or something.

Liam knitted his eyebrows together in confusion, but smiled despite Louis’s nonsense.

With last one cheeky grin Louis left to give him some privacy and Liam undressed hopping into the bath. As much as Louis was kind of worried about him being in there alone, he knew it was impractical and this was something Liam clearly needed to do alone.

That still didn’t mean he wasn’t worrying like a mother hen about the sick boy once he left. 

Instant relief hit Liam when he entered the bath tub, the oats acting like a soother to his dreaded spots. Liam didn’t think something as simple as oats could sooth chickenpox, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

It seemed too soon when Louis was knocking on the bathroom door, telling him he should probably get out because it had been 45 minutes and the water would probably be getting cold. Liam hadn’t even realised it wasn’t nearly as warm as before, he had been too preoccupied being far too relaxed.

He slowly made his way out of the tub to find a massive, white fluffy towel sitting on the ground by the door with some clothes. He didn’t remember anyone putting them there but graciously wrapped himself in the fluffy towel, drying himself off. He changed into the grey sweatpants and stripy shirt(that he was certain wasn’t his but knowing Louis had left it out for him made him smile) and exited the bathroom feeling much better then when he entered.

Granted, he knew this feeling wasn’t going to last long, the itching was going to come back and his throat was still sore. But he felt much more relaxed and ready to handle what came next.

“Liam!” Louis greeted happily as he entered the living room, it was like the older boys eyes just lit up at seeing him.

He smiled at the boy, ready to settle himself on the couch with Louis and take a long nap. And he certainly didn’t care how childish that sounded, he wanted Louis. Liam was confused however when Louis directed him from the room, back to his bedroom. Wasn’t he going to sit with the boys?

“Come on, were taking you back to bed. You need to get rest in order to feel better,” Louis said at Liam’s confused face, “Don’t worry Harrys got soup for you. You really need to eat something.”

“Pauls coming over later too,” Niall piped in who Liam hadn’t realised was following the boys.

Liam let himself be tucked into bed by Louis as the boy made sure the blankets sat comfortably around his waist and he was propped up on about 4 pillows. He was seated directly in the middle of the big king sized bed and he tried not to sigh in relief when Niall lounged across the end of it lazily. He knew if Niall was making himself comfortable then they weren’t about to leave him any time soon.

He didn’t want to say it aloud, but the last thing he wanted right now was to be left alone.

“Here you go Li,” Harry entered the room with Zayn carrying a small bowl of chicken soup. Liam eyed the bowl off wearily, he really wasn’t at all hungry and he especially didn’t want to eat it if Harry had made it by scratch.

“Don’t worry,” Zayn said sensing the boys distaste and taking a seat next to him, “Harry didn’t make it. It’s from a packet, just add water.”

Liam honestly didn’t know if he should feel better about it or not, but he accepted the bowl and began to eat very slowly.

The boys happily chatted away on the bed, somehow all five of them easily seated around the sick boy. Zayn was sitting close to Liam and had the boy wrapped protectively under his arm, Liam appreciated the contact. He liked being this close with Zayn, especially when he felt slightly special knowing Zayn only showed this kind of affection to the people he truly cared about.

However he wasn’t going to admit that a tiny part of him would rather be tucked under Louis arm right now. The sick boy also missed the clear glare Louis was sending the Bradford boy, to which Zayn just smirked cockily.

Not even a quarter of the way through his soup Liam realised  he wasn’t going to be able to eat anymore, he was too tired and his throat was making it difficult to get anything down. Niall eyed him off and could obviously sense his discomfort, “Are you done Li?”

Liam nodded weakly, and he didn’t miss the frowns all the boys were sending him, “Just a bit more Li?” Louis practically pleaded. Liam wasn’t eating enough, not enough to get nutrient back into his body.

Liam shook his head sadly, he seriously couldn’t eat any more. He was worried his stomach might just bring the whole contents back up. 

Louis gave him his best puppy dog eyes, “Please Li Li, for me?”

Liam rolled his eyes, he wasn’t weak enough to fall for the puppy dog eyes. He just shook his head defiantly crossing his arms over his chest, he wasn’t eating that.

Louis dropped his head defeated, “Fine you don’t have to eat it if you don’t fell well.” He mumbled and Liam just giggled at his childish antics.

“Try and least have a popsicle though babe, need to stay hydrated,” Zayn stated rubbing his arm gently and Liam just frowned. Popsicle? What was he three?

“I want a popsicle!” Harry whined who had practically sprawled himself across Niall, unfazed he was practically sitting on top of the boy.

“Fine you can have one too, only as long as you get one for Liam,” Louis said and Harry happily bounced away.

Harry had always been a very physical person, but it always came out more when he was worried or sick. For the past few days Harry had been extra clingy to Liam and all the boys just because he was that concerned for his sick lad. His usual dominate, strong and in control demeanour was replaced with this worried 18 year old that looked to his older friends for guidance. It was easy to forget Harry was the youngest in there group, despite not acting like it. Occasions like now, like when Liam was terribly ill, his more childish side would come out. He was sticking to Niall and Zayn like absolute glue and treading after Lou like a lost puppy. Not to mention he was attached at Liam’s hip and constantly walking around with this sad look on his face when he wasn’t sure how Liam was.

Despite it being kind of weird, Louis found it adorable. Because Harry was cute, he’d always be cute. Louis liked it when he acted his age.

Quickly the hyperactive boy came back with two popsicles, one for him and the sick boy who he handed to carefully, “There you go Li, we made sure to get Lemonade because their your favourite.”

Liam smiled as he took the treat full of sugar, it was cold but soothing on his throat. He was a bit surprised when Harry took the free space next to him and snuggled close to his side. He just smiled though putting an arm around Harry, appreciating the closeness. He wished him and Harry could have this when he wasn’t sick, but it was rare for them to do that when he was healthy. Usually they were rowing or arguing about interviews or talking seriously about the band. Liam liked it when harry just wanted to be with him.

Not that him and Harry didn’t get along. But it was like they both held up these similar barriers which didn’t allow people cross. Both wanting to come across as independent and strong, not willing to show weakness unless forced. They were almost so similar that it was why they fought. As much as they did get along, Harry was the best person to ask about girls after all, it was rare for them to be truly defenceless around each other. Although he didn’t like being sick and he certainly didn’t like making the youngest band member worry, it was a nice reminder that Harry actually was only 18 and he really did love Liam.

Louis put on Back to the Future, a random movie laying in their motel room and they all sat on the bed watching the movie. Liam squished between Zayn and Harry, Louis and Niall making themselves comfortable randomly around the bed.

About half way through the movie Paul came in, knocking softly on the door and peeking his head through, “Hey, how are you feeling Li?”

Liam who was slowly falling asleep and just smiled softly, “He’s good, not allowed to talk though,” Louis answered for him, smirking at the boy when he frowned.

Paul nodded, “Do you want me to take them to bed?” He indicated to the two youngest band mates who had fallen asleep quickly when the movie was put on. Harry was curled up on Liam’s side and Niall was using Zayn’s leg as a pillow.

Louis frowned, he knew they wouldn’t appreciate being taken from Liam and by the look on the sick boys face he didn’t want them anywhere but close to him, but it was late and they needed to sleep, “If you don’t mind.”

Paul just nodded and slowly and carefully pried Harry from Liam’s grasp, although he was reluctant to let go. He carried both boys to their own beds separately and told the others he was going to sleep himself so don’t stay up too late. And also that he’d bring the boys maccas breakfast tomorrow if they were lucky.

Paul shut the door quietly and Louis looked to the remaining boys, watching as Zayn ran his fingers up and down Liams arm and how Liam looked paler than usual. He bit his lip frowning.

“Maybe we should go to bed too?” He suggested hesitantly, clearly uncertain about the decision.

“No!” It came out much louder and more desperate then Liam had intended despite his voice still horse and sore, and Louis almost jumped a mile. The absolute last thing Liam wanted was for anyone to leave him right now, Louis wouldn’t actually consider leaving would he? “Please, just. Stay?” he asked quietly.

Louis sighed moving so he was able to wrap a protective arm around the younger boy, cuddling up to the side that Zayn wasn’t on, “We’ll stay.”

Liam nodded, calming down slightly, “Don’t go.”

The thought of Louis or Zayn leaving him at this very moment was terrifying, they couldn’t leave him. Not now, not when he was in so much pain and just needed someone to stay with him. Although he was getting better it wasn’t nearly fast enough and honestly he was just ready to feel normal again. However if anything he just felt more exhausted and ill then this morning, and all he wanted was not to be left alone feeling this awful. Louis and Zayn had to stay. He knew as long as they were with him nothing bad would happen. He was safe with them, he was protected.

Zayn and Louis shared concerned looks, but each drew themselves closer to Liam letting him snuggle further down into the blankets.

“We won’t go Li, I promise,” Louis whispered, “Just go to sleep, kay?”

Liam nodded, resting his head on Louis chest. He’d be fine as long as Louis stayed with him.

*****************************************************************************

He was running.

Running through heavy storms of mud that were seeping through his jeans, enclosing around his legs and pulling him down. The rain fell bitterly cold on his face, barely being able to see in front of him. The night air cool and dark as he attempted to run but his leg grew heavy and resistant as they refused to listen. 

Someone was following him. Something was trying to get him.

What?

He wasn’t sure. He just knew he had to get out of there, run or he wasn’t going to make it. Something wanted him.

The mud was pulling him down, making each step more impossible and his lungs stung from breathing in the acid like air. He couldn’t breathe, his lungs were closing up and his vision became blurred. His heart was racing like a speeding car and he knew he had to get out before it got him. Panic and terror engrossed every element of his body, making his limbs go numb and frozen in fear.

He tried to call out but his voice wasn’t working, nothing but a harsh whimper escaped him. Coopery blood filled his mouth, spitting out the deep red blood that poured into his soft flesh. He’d fallen, legs collapsing beneath him and he could almost feel his knees bending in directions that weren’t natural. His whole body throbbed like it had been set alight, flames bursting from his chest trying to escape.

Calling out brought no sound and all he could desperately do was think of the four people who he’d never needed more in his life.

Louis. Zayn. Harry. Niall.

Where were they? Why weren’t they here? Why weren’t they protecting him? Saving him?

The rain palates dropped on his face like icy knives as he shivered on the ground, he was alone. Nobody was coming for him.

“LOUIS.”

-/-/-/-

Liam shot up, whole body drenched in sweat and tears freely falling down his face. He looked around the room to find his bed uncharacteristically empty and cold. His hands were trembling and he couldn’t get them to stop as more tears continued to fall easily tying to get his bearings and form some kind of recognition as to what was happening. The first question coming to him being, why was he alone?

It had been a dream, that he was certain of, but it made the whole ordeal no less terrifying that if it wasn’t real. Because he was still alone.

They’d promised to stay with him yet here he was, alone in a blackening room filled with nothing by eeriness. The night air stinging his sore body and shadows forming on the wall in unnatural patterns, adding to the ever looming sense of dread that hung over him.

They’d left him, probably realising he wasn’t worth taking care of and they could easily find someone more talented, better looking and less annoying to fill his place.

His spots itched and burnt like crazy as memories of his dream flooding back as he tried to hold back the tears. He knew his illness was messing with his head, making things worse than they were and more real. This had happened to him a lot as a child when sick.

However when he was a child, whenever he woke up from a night terror someone was there to hold him. His mom instantly by his side or one of his sisters with a comforting hug.

Here they had all left him, there promise broken.

Liam couldn’t stop as his tears turned into hacking sobs, pulling his legs to his chest and hunching into himself willing them to subside. Emptiness and loneliness and pure fear entered him and he couldn’t focus on anything long enough to try and think straight.

He’d barely recognised he was repeating the same word over and over again between sobs.

That was how the elder boy found him, hunched into himself almost suffocating through lack of air. He jumped across the room and pulled Liam to his chest, holding the boy close as he tried not to let his guilt eat him from the inside. He had only gone for a minute.

“Li, Li? Shhhh, calm down. You’re alright, you’re alright,” Louis repeated soothingly over and over again. This lasted several minutes before Liam had stopped sobbing and was gently crying, face buried into his chest as he clutched Louis’s shirt for dear life.

“Li, calm down. It was only a dream,” Louis said rubbing circles on his back and hiding his face into the boys curly hair. He’d remembered Karen telling him that Liam was prone to nightmares when sick, although he hadn’t expected them on such a grand scale. If he had then Liam wouldn’t have spent one night alone, someone would always be with him. It made his stomach churn when he realised this could have been happening every night and no one would have been any wiser because Liam wouldn’t have told them.

“Are you okay?” He asked when Liam’s sobs had turned into silent tears.

Liam nodded his head against the older boys chest, eyes shut tight and head leaning down.

“Are you sure,” Louis coaxed gently.

It was silent for a moment and Louis was sure Liam wasn’t going to tell him anything, like usual. But then a quiet voice said, “You left.”

“What?” Louis asked confused, his voice dropping low and stomach tossing in absolute shame.

“You promised you wouldn’t leave,” Liam barely whispered, “Then you left.”

His heart broke instantly when he realised what Liam meant and he knew he was going to have to spend the rest of his life making this one moment up to the younger boy, nothing was ever going to make him feel not guilty about leaving the almost broken sick boy alone, “Oh Liam! No! I just went to the bathroom! I woke up to go to the bathroom and Zayn left to go sleep in his own bed but I was coming right back. I wasn’t gone more than 5 minutes, I’m so sorry Li,” He pleaded.

He felt Liam nod into his chest and even if Liam did believe his excuse he knew he was going to feel guilty about it for eternity, “I’m so sorry Li,”

“S’okay,” Liam muttered.

No, it wasn’t. Because Louis hadn’t realised the extent of…well ,that. Nobody knew that was going to happen.

“You’re here now,” Liam said quietly.

Louis sighed, that was hardly a consolation.

“Are you going to be able to sleep?” Louis asked, rubbing circles on the younger’s back and holding onto him for dear life trying to steer the conversation in a different direction.

Liam nodded, “Yea.”

“Okay, try and get some sleep yea?” Louis asked.

He laid down with the boy, holding him to his chest tightly and watched as Liam’s eyes dropped close and his breathing steadied out. He traced over all of Liam’s features in his mind, rememorizing elements that he knew like the back of his hand. Analysing the absolute perfection that was Liam James Payne.  
He sighed, taking Liam’s hand in his own and entwining their fingers together and kissing the knuckle lightly, brushing his lips across each.

As long as he lived on gods green earth, Liam was never going to go through something like that again. Not if he had anything to say about it.

-/-/-/-/-

The next morning when Liam woke up, the night before was kind of a blur. Only bits and pieces were coming to him, and desperately hoped that were just a dream. Because if that actually did happen, he was pretty much the biggest loser to walk the planet. Louis was going to think he was incapable of anything, ever again.

However, if it wasn’t a dream, the last thing he expected to wake up to was an unoccupied bed. His bed was cold and empty and he was the only one residing in it, where was Louis? Had Louis left him again, even after last night?

“Louis is just taking a shower, don’t worry he’ll be back soon,”

Liam almost jumped a mile, not even realising anyone else was in the room with him. He untangled himself from the covers and saw his youngest band mate sitting on a chair beside him, playing a game on his phone. The youngest looked at him cheekily, giving him his trademark grin but Liam could easily see the sympathy that lingered behind it.

So last night hadn’t all been a dream then.

“Okay,” Liam said slowly, his voice wasn’t a horse as yesterday and it didn’t hurt as much either. It tingled a little and was still a bit scratchy, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. Finally a noticeable improvement.

“He waited with you for ages, but he didn’t want you to wake up,” Harry continued, as if trying to justify why Louis had left.

Liam shrugged, tugging on his pyjama pants embarrassed, “It’s okay.”

Liam didn’t miss the way the younger frowned, “He… he told us about last night,” Harry said slowly as if afraid the topic might make Liam burst. Liam wasn’t sure if Harry was worried about him bursting in rage or tears, he assumed neither did the other boy though.

Liam just nodded, figuring as much. He sighed, he really shouldn’t have broken down like that. Now he’d be lucky if the boys ever left him alone, surely that’s why Harry was here. A constant baby sitter was to be at his side at all times now, “Yea,”

“Do you remember it?” Harry asked timidly.

Liam shrugged again, “Not the dream really,” He said cryptically. He was glad he didn’t remember the entire dream, because he remembered how he felt after the dream. Scared, lost, confused, empty. If that’s what the dream had left him with then he didn’t want to remember it.

“But after?” Harry pressed.

“Yea, a bit,” Liam said embarrassed. Breaking down to that extent in front of Louis wasn’t something he’d wanted to do. That had been his absolute lowest point and god only knows what the eldest thought of him because of it.

Harry nodded, leaning back in his chair and gazing at Liam thoughtfully, “It’s okay you know?” he asked.

“What?”

“It’s okay, your mom told us you get nightmares when you’re sick. It happens, your allowed to be scared Li,” he said soothingly.

Liam flushed darkly, “Shouldn’t have on Lou, wasn’t fair to him,” he mumbled.

Harry chuckled, “Its fine. Louis loves you. We all love you and you’re allowed to break down on any of us. Louis might just love you that little bit more,” he added.

Liam narrowed his eyes but decided to let the comment slide for now, “But still-“

“No but still. Stop being so high and mighty Li, it’s giving me a headache. One minute you’re letting us take care of you and the next your back to closed up Daddy Direction. Just let us help okay?” Harrys voice was playful but Liam didn’t miss the distress lingering behind it.

He looked into the chocolate eyes of the younger and grinned slightly, he knew they just cared. He always knew that.

“Yea, I know. It’s just, hard. I guess,” Liam sighed, “Thanks, though.”

Harry smiled, “And stop thanking us. Taking care of you isn’t something you should thank us for, we just do it. It’s not a matter of whether we will or not, we just do. We’re your best mates Li, give us some credit.”

“I know but-“ Liam started.

“No buts. Be quite,” Harry joked, “Just lie down and let us look after you. Humour us at least mate?”

Liam smiled and sighed dramatically, “Fine.”

There was a comfortable silence for a moment before Harry asked, “So how are you feeling? Damn you weren’t supposed to be talking! I totally spaced!”

Liam laughed, “It’s okay, my throats feeling much better,”

Harry eyed him down suspiciously for a moment, clearly unsure whether he should believe this or not, “Alright. But Lou’s still probably going to kick my ass. You know we’re not allowed to leave you alone any more right?”

Liam rolled his eyes, “I figured Louis would do something like that,”

“What can you do, the boy worries. Not that I can blame him though.” Harry laughed.

Liam smiled slightly, but really couldn’t help the blush that formed on his cheeks despite himself. He fiddled with the blanket absentmindedly, avoiding contact with the younger boy hoping he wouldn’t notice his embarrassment. Because sometimes he just, forgot how much the boys cared about him and how much he loved them. They were always going to look after him just like he was going to look after them. Sometimes that just slipped Liam’s mind.

Harry of course did not miss the reddening on the older boys cheeks and had to literally stop himself from reaching over to the boy pinching his cheek and pulling him into a close embrace. Harry liked it when Liam was embarrassed, and not just because he liked making the boy turn a bright pink, but because Liam was cute and had this childish, sweet side of him that rarely came out. He liked it when it did, “You’re adorable Liam,” He teased.

This only made Liam flush more and he really wished someone else was ‘babysitting’ him right now because Harry was always the one to take the piss out of him most. Luckily in that moment Louis came bounding into the room, hair still wet from the shower but fresh clothes and a bright smile planted on his face.

“Liam! You’re awake!” Louis stated happily and sat himself on the edge of the bed, rubbing Liam’s leg over the blanket. He was uncharacteristically quiet and gentle, which meant he was still wary of what happened last night and wanted to approach the sick boy tentatively. However he still held that normal cheeky smile, which gave Liam some hope that Louis didn’t think a whole lot less of him.

“Yea, I’m feeling a bit better too,” Liam said, his voice was still hoarse and the itching was still there. But Liam was feeling better which was an improvement, only if it was a just a little bit.

Louis eyed him off suspiciously, “Are you sure? Is your throat still sore? You looked a little flushed?”

Harry sniggered from behind them, but Liam was glad when he kept his mouth shut as to why he was flushed. It wasn’t his fault he did like being called cute. Louis pressed the back of his hand to Liam’s forehead and Liam just let him get the mothering out of his system. He doubted protesting would do him any good in this state and he owed it to Louis to really just stay quite.

“Well you don’t feel too warm, but I think I’ll get the thermometer anyway, just to make sure,” Louis said in a serious tone.

“Yes mom,” Liam teased.

Louis grinned, “Don’t sass me boy, I’ll be back. Harry watch him,”

With one last ruffle of Liam’s hair, which Liam did not lean into at all and wasn’t under any circumstances upset when he pulled away, he left the room. Leaving Liam with a very cocky Harry Styles.

“You two are just so cute,” Harry teased.

Liam rolled his eyes, pulling the covers up to his chest and over his head, “Shut up Styles.” He didn’t really want to put up with Harry’s teasing at the moment, even if it knew it was light hared. He was having enough trouble figuring out what was going on himself let alone having the curly nuisance getting involved.

“I can see the love in your eyes, it’s so adorable,”

“We’re not in love,” He groaned.

“If that’s not love, then I don’t know what love is,”

“Shut up. Louis isn’t in love with me,” Liam said, covers still over his head and voice muffled desperately trying to hide the disappointment in his voice and now very red face.

“But you are in love with Louis?” Liam could hear the smugness in his tone, he chose not to justify that question with an answer, “I knew it!”

“Shut up,” Liam dragged out.

“Oh dear naive Liam, you are in way deep now.”

Liam didn’t know what he was referring to and he really wished Harry would just shut up. But he had to admit, joking around like this was normal and natural, and he missed it. He would be glad when things went back to normal.

Well, hopefully not completely normal.

*****************************************************************************

Just as expected, Liam wasn’t allowed out of any of the boys sight for the rest of the day. Really he shouldn’t have been as surprised by this as he was, but nonetheless tried to insist that he was fine and that he could at least be left alone to pee in peace, he was capable of normal human activities. They however insisted on waiting by the bathroom door, just in case.

Liam wasn’t sure if he should be extremely grateful, or try to knock one of them out. His instincts were telling him to go the later. He knew there heart was in the right place, they were only looking out for him, but it was a little bit frustrating to say the least. He was Daddy Direction after all. However he also knew after what had happened, he really didn’t have a choice in the matter. All of the mothering was really for their own peace of mind, rather than to actually help him anyway.

Louis had told the other boys the events of last night, which only left a very overwhelmed and embarrassed Liam who was now not allowed alone because they were so worried he was going to have some kind of mental break down on them. He knew it was only because they cared, but still, they were taking it awful far.

Currently he was settled on the bed, tucked tightly under Louis strong arms who had barely let him out of his sight all day and Zayn sitting on his other side. Harry was still stationed on the chair he’d brought in this morning, bare feet propped on the bed and Niall was lounging at the end.

The four of them had made sure to stick like glue to Liam all day and while he complained and whinged and blushed terribly at it, he couldn’t honestly say it was a terrible thing. He’d never admit it aloud but the attention wasn’t entirely bad.

Harry had been acting extra cuddly and cheeky with him, which despite being annoying Liam liked because Harry cuddled up to people like a cat and would pretty much lie across them. As much as he protested he enjoyed being that close to the youngest, it was rare and he liked having him close and safe (although he knew having Harry lying on top of him was anything but to keep the younger safe) 

Zayn had been making sure he had everything he needed and was being extra gentle with him, which was very uncharacteristic for him. Liam however secretly loved when Zayn went all ‘Mamma Bear’ on them because it was always nice to see the Bradford Bad Boys softer side.

Niall made sure he was keeping his fluids up and was trying to get him to eat as much as possible, even though the last thing on Liam’s mind right now was food. But the Irishmen’s heart was in the right place and when Niall gave him that pout Liam could hardly resist him. He appreciated the effort the blonde was putting in.

And of course Louis hadn’t left his side for a good 18 hours which Liam had no complaints about. When Harry wasn’t cuddling up to him it was Louis holding him tightly. And as much as Liam enjoyed Harry’s cat like snuggles, Louis cuddles were always the best.

So now squished between his band mates and some random Disney movie on the TV Liam could finally say he was starting to feel better. It felt think he’d had the chickenpox forever and he was ready to be rid of the illness. Of course he wasn’t sure if he was actually feeling better or if it was just the comfortable atmosphere his bandmates had created, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

His band mates however, did seem to start complaining. As much as they loved him, they were four usually very reckless and annoying children trapped in teenager’s bodies. All this doing nothing was not going to be stimulative enough for them. Liam had wondered for a few days when this was going to happen.

Unsurprisingly, Louis was the first to strike and inspiringly again Liam had become his chosen target, and Liam really did adore him too much to tell him to stop and let him rest. The older had taken to poking Liam in the check repeatedly while grinning cheekily at him. Liam just frowned, trying to look mostly annoyed and attempted to move away, but Louis held him tightly with the other arm and Zayn was sitting on the other side of him leaving no room for movement.

“You’re so cute Li Li,” Louis teased causing Liam to flush deep and the other boys to giggle.

“Shut up,” Liam groaned, burying his face into Louis chest, they really took too much enjoyment of taking the piss out of him. Did they enjoy watching him blush?

That was stupid, of course they did. They’d told him that, and its not like Liam was completely innocent either. Countless times had he called Harry by an embarrassing pet name in front of many girls just to see him flush or held the tiny Niall in his arms after something that really wasn’t scary just to see his pale cheeks turn red. Maybe he was just as bad as them.

“Aw but Li, your adorable,” Louis continued to tease making Liam continue to groan.

The other boys just laughed at Liam and Louis pulled him in closer. “Are you feeling better?” Niall asked from the end of the bed.

Liam just shrugged, “Alright, a bit better.”

Before he could say anything a knock at the door was heard and a grinning sheepishly Paul entered the room, “Hey Li,” Paul said softly as if afraid too much noise might startle the boys.

“Paul we missed you so much!” Louis said dramatically and Zayn snorted.

“We saw him this morning, and yesterday,” Zayn said logically.

Louis just shrugged, “It feels like forever.”

Paul rolled his eyes, “Right, how are you feeling Liam?”

“Better thanks,” He replied.

Paul looked at his suspiciously, clearly dubious about believing him due to the boys glassy eyes and the way his hand rested on his stomach from itching, “You don’t mind me taking your temperature then?” He asked.

Liam cringed at the impending device but allowed the older man to stick it in his ear to take his temperature. While Liam was known for being Daddy Direction all the boys in the band knew it was truly Paul who would always be the dad who took care of them. The last thing he ever wanted was for them to be injured or sick, and they knew Paul would do anything to prevent that.

Liam made a mental reminder to let Paul have a very well deserved break when they got back to London, maybe he could pay for a family trip to Hawaii or something?

He pulled the thermometer out of the boys ear and frowned, “It’s still a bit high. But your right, you’re getting better so that’s good.”

Liam smiled, subconsciously leaning more into Louis’s touch.

“Take these, I went down to the chemist and this should control some of the itching,” Paul said handing him two small pills.

Liam eyed them off wearily a little concerned that he didn’t know what they were or even what they were called, but took them down with some water nonetheless. He doubted Paul would ever give him anything that would harm him. At least he hoped, he trusted the man with pretty much his whole life. So a few pills should be fine.

They went down easily and Paul gave him an encouraging grin, but Liam didn’t miss the smirk on his face when he noticed just how close he and Louis were.

Thankfully he chose to ignore it and even luckier Zayn stole his attention elsewhere.

“So Paul, did you bring us maccas?” Zayn smirked.

The older man rolled his eyes, “No.” He shot.

“But you promised!” Niall cried almost outraged.

“No, I never promised anything,” Paul said like it was obvious, and he was probably right. He probably never promised them anything.

“But Paul!” Harry whined dramatically. He jumped off his chair and was now down on his knees begging the older man with his brown pleading puppy dog eyes. Nobody could resist the puppy eyes from Harry.

Well, expect Paul.

Paul just rolled his eyes and easily lifted the youngest off the ground and onto his shoulders playfully, seeming unfazed by Harrys size and picking him up like a child. Liam wondered how much Paul benched, clearly he wasn’t small, and neither was Harry. But Liam can recall a time when paul was carrying both Louis and Zayn and managed to stay up right.

God this guy really needed a raise.

“NO!” Harry yelled in mock despair as he was slung over the boy guards shoulder “ZAYN! HELP ME!”

“I’ll save you Harry!” Zayn shouted and charged at the man, jumping on his beck so now Paul had two members of one direction clutching him.

He just shook his head rolling his eyes, familiar with the play fight usually brought on by Zayn and Louis doing something they shouldn’t be and running around the house/area/stage with them for hours. Zayn and Louis were always partners in crime causing some kind of mischief for Paul to clean up, of course they always made a game of it, it was always something to sustain their boredom for a while. Run from Paul.

They’re practically taunt Paul until he’d chase after them, which of course he always did. Luckily for Paul he knew boys were very ticklish, and once captured easy to calm down. It was just initially catching them which proved to be the problem.

Tour sometimes got boring, what could they say?

Easily Paul carried the two out to the other room, shooting Louis a ‘take care of Liam’ look and began wrestling with them in the lounge area. Niall wasn’t far behind yelling a loud battle cry and jumping on top of the unsuspecting male.

Louis honestly wondered why Paul stuck around sometimes, surely they gave him a lot to talk about in therapy. 

-/-/-/

Louis sighed, rolling his eyes and tightening his grip on Liam trying to get the boy to sit still. However the medication Paul had brought Liam had made him rather, well loopy. Apparently they were far stronger than anyone had intended. While defiantly making the itching disappear they had also made him kind of delirious.

No longer in control of his motor functions and with the attention span of a new born puppy, this new ridiculously high Liam on medication was saying all sorts of random things that usual sensible Liam would never had said. So far he had told Louis that mermaids freaked him out because they didn’t have legs and not to point because he would and quote ‘kill the fairies’. They probably weren’t that unusual, he’d had weirder conversations with Harry. But because this was Liam and they had been previously been talking about the tour the younger’s sudden left field in conversation hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Liam had within the span of 7 minutes poked Louis nose several times calling it “squishy like a banana” (which in all fairness Louis probably deserved, but still being compared to a banana wasn’t a compliment) and tried to get out of bed multiple times to “look for the fairies”.  He didn’t bother to ask where Liam’s sudden fascination in fairies had come from but rather grabbed Liam by the middle and forcing him back onto the bed, “We can look for fairies later Liam”.

Louis kind of assumed this is what it would be like looking after a toddler (or a high teenager), either way he decided he certainly wasn’t having children.

“Louis” Liam whined looking up at him with wide eyes.

Louis grinned, “Yes Liam?” he decided humoured the boy.

“I wish unicorns could talk, don’t you think that would be awesome?”  Liam asked seriously.

Louis had to restrain himself from laughing out loud at the serious tone Liam had adopted. For being so serious and in control usually, it was certainly different seeing this side of him, “It would be cool Liam,” He said and choosing to ignore the bleating obvious fact that unicorns weren’t real.

Liam sighed slumping down on Louis chest and playing with Louis fingers on his left hand, “Louis?” The sick boy asked.

 “Yea Li?”

“I love you,” His doe eyes burning holes into Louis.

Louis felt like the weight of a hundred stones pierced his chest, but sighed nonetheless. As much as he would love to believe the sincerity behind those words,  Liam was high on medication so it was difficult to take him seriously in this state, “I love you too Li,” he patronised while rubbing the boys back soothingly in hopes to get him to sit still and possibly go to sleep.

“No!” Liam shouted starling the older boy as he tried to struggle out of his arms. Unlucky for him Louis refused to let go so he just turned to face him looking in his eyes desperately, “You don’t get it. You just don’t get it,” He said sadly.

“Don’t get what?” Louis asked softly.

Liam just mumbled something unintelligent and laid his head against Louis chest. The older boy looked down at the boy and realised he had passed out either from exhausted or the pain medication. He sighed running his fingers through the younger boys hair, admiring the way Liam looked so angelic and beautiful.

They stayed like that for a while, Liam passed out on Louis shoulder as Louis continued to admire the way he could hold Liam close and keep him safe. The boy rarely let him keep him safe, so it was nice to have him tucked under his arm so securely. He loved all the boys as much as his little sisters (even though Liam was an expectation to ‘family love’) and he would easily die for any of them. It wasn’t unusual for his serious, big brother side to kick in now and then when all he ever wanted was to have them all tucked away securely.  Liam mostly, because the boy was always so stupid and reckless with his health, always putting other before himself. It really drove Louis up the wall to be honest.

He loved Liam, he just wished the boy loved him back. It honestly didn’t mean much when he told Louis while he was all drugged and up and loopy.

“Hey?”

Louis head shot up at the voice and saw Harry peaking through the door, a cheeky smile on his face yet it was filled with adoration and concern.

“Hey,” Louis whispered, “be quite he just feel asleep.” Louis really didn’t want him to wake up again and go on about something even weirder. He loved pliable and adorable Liam who spoke nonsense when he was sick, but he liked when Liam made sense too. Although he’d have to record some of it, to use for black mail later if Liam refused to play with him. There is only so many times Louis can threaten the life of his Buzz Light-year doll.

Harry nodded and tip toed into the room shutting the door carefully behind him.

“You got tired of rough housing?” Louis smirked as he pulled Liam protectively closer to him when Harry took a seat on the chair beside the bed again.

The younger shrugged, “Niall and Zayn seemed to be handling it just fine, I thought I’d leave Paul to them,” He smiled. Truthfully Paul had quickly gotten sick of being outnumbered by three teenage boys, so he resulted in using tactics to ensure he would win the play fight. Harry always hated when Paul started poking around there abdomens and fled the scene before he became the easy target, being the most sensitive of all five boys. Being the youngest really had its disadvantages sometimes.

Louis just smiled knowingly and turned back to Liam, “How’s he going?” Harry asked.

Louis shrugged, “Better I think. He’s high up on medication right now, wasn’t making any sense before he practically passed out. It was quite amusing actually.” He laughed.

“What was he saying? Something embarrassing I hope,” Harry snorted, why did no one ever tape Liam when he was doing something like this? It was something they needed as black mail for the boy.

“Before or after he asked me whether I thought it would be cool if unicorns could talk?”

Harry burst out laughing, “That’s awesome.”

Louis gave him a small smiled, “Yea.” He said slowly.

Harry frowned, “did he say anything else?”

“Just something that didn’t make sense,” he admitted thoughtfully.

“What?”

Louis hesitated for a moment but figured he could tell Harry, he needed someone else’s opinion anyway, “well it’s just he told me he loved me. But when I said I love him too, you know like we usually do, he started to freak out and was like you don’t get it. He’s probably just high on medication or something. Silly to even bring up,” Louis rambled on, justifying to himself more than to Harry why Liam had been so insane.

Harry bit his lip, contemplating whether it was his place to say anything. On one hand he knew Liam and Louis were both pretty much smitten with the other, but isn’t that something they should really work out on their own? He didn’t want to interfere too much and what if he did and it ended tragically? He couldn’t do that to two of his best friends.

Then again, it could be the best thing to ever happen to them and the band, and to be honest Harry was sick of all this crazy sexual tension. Something needed to be put out in the open and if they weren’t going to do it, well Harry would just have to throw caution in the wind and force them together. If worst came to worse he could just lock them both in a closest and refuse to let them out until they kiss and make up.

“Liam is in love with you,” Harry said bluntly. Possibly a bit to bluntly if he thought about it, but hey it needed to be done.

“Wait,” Louis said snapping his head up he swore he almost just heard his neck crack, “what?”

Harry rolled his eyes, “You and Liam are both very oblivious to each other. You need to sit down and have a real conversation when he isn’t high and you aren’t acting like a crazy mother hen.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Louis asked again. As much as he wanted to believe it, none of it made any sense. Liam was Liam. He was never going to love Louis. Louis had come to accept that.

Still, a tiny part of Louis really hoped Harry wasn’t just giving him a load of bull shit right now.

Harry rolled his eyes again but it was more forced and frustrated then before, “Tomorrow, sit down and talk with him. I promise you won’t regret anything.”

“But-“ A million different scenarios, problems and fears entered Louis mind. He couldn’t possibly talk to Liam about this.

“No buts. Just trust me Lou,”

Louis nodded. If he knew anything, he knew he trusted Harry. No matter how insane his ideas were.

“And if you don’t do it I’ll tell him or worse lock you in a cupboard together and then shout it through the door, that won’t be awkward at all.”

Louis glared, because as much as he knew Harry was joking and would never actually publicly humiliate him. The tone in the younger man’s voice kind of worried him.

***************************************************************************

The next day turned out to be a bit of a blur for Liam. He woke up feeling like he had some kind of hangover and it only made him wonder what kind of drug Paul had actually given him, and if Paul had even obtained it legally. Because as much as it stopped the itching, and illness wise he was feeling much better, last night really had been strange.

After what he assumed was passing out the first time, he’d only woken up briefly during the afternoon and night, and then had fallen straight back to sleep. Just as promised, each time he’d woken up someone had been with him holding him protectively against there chest. It had mainly been Louis, who he assumed probably barely left his side all night, but the other boys and Paul had all made an appearance. Louis promise was never once broken.

Liam was sure Louis didn’t know how much that meant to him.

This morning however, despite feeling better than he had all week (although he still wasn’t allowed out of bed because Zayn had taken over ‘Daddy Direction’ and was fretting the fuck out over his health that Liam was honestly worried he was going to have an aneurism or something) he felt incredibly lonely. Because while he was surrounded by the ever so charming Niall who was screaming at the top of his lungs at some random sport on TV, the cheeky Harry who had deemed the chair beside his bed his, and the always caring and worried Zayn and Paul (although Paul was constantly torn between worrying over him, worrying over Harry and Niall and going to the other room to take a call) Louis had been absent all morning. He’d woken up to Harry sitting on the chair again tapping away madly on his phone and Niall perched at the end of his bed, even though he was sure he woke up disoriented several times during the night only to find himself wrapped up in the older boys arms.

To make matters worse, Liam really hadn’t been as disoriented yesterday as he would have liked, because he remembered everything from yesterday and distinctively the part where he told Louis he loved him. Did Louis actually believe his medicated state and now couldn’t bear to be in the same room as him? His love was only very one sided and now Louis was disgusted his band mate could ever like him? Had Liam ruined every chance at even being the boys friend again?

Harry had assured him several times that Louis was just out this morning as he’d stayed all night and just needed to get out, casting him several pitiful looks that Liam really didn’t want. If Louis didn’t want to see him he could at least tell him or let him know the truth. This in-between was just cruel.

He slumped on his pillows with his arms crossed over his chest trying to watch the TV with Niall while trying to keep the pout off his face.

Stupid Louis.

He didn’t succeed very well when Harry shot him an amused smirk and placed himself next to the sick boy, bringing him into his chest and stroking his back comfortingly. It was weird and unfamiliar, but not completely uncomfortable in Harrys arm. The boy always smelt nice and Harry was the only one taller than him so he did fit nicely in his embrace, it was nice to be the one held for once rather than doing the holding. It always felt like he was doing the holding.

However Harry, wasn’t Louis. He just didn’t fit as perfectly, the younger boy’s arms weren’t as strong or protective and overall it just wasn’t the same.

Liam missed the eldest, but he’d be damned if he said it aloud.

This was just getting foolish and childish, all he wanted was to get better so people would stop treating him as incompetent and he could go back to being Daddy Direction. He wanted to go back to looking after his boys, and he would very much like to stop pining after a boy who clearly didn’t care the same way about him. Things needed to go back to the way they were, but that certainly weren’t going to happen if he didn’t get better and stop the boys babying him. Liam was over that now.

Now that Louis clearly wasn’t going to look after him anymore.

Before Liam could actually express these thoughts to anyone, (although he was sure if he did tell them he was sick of the childish treatment and ask them to stop babying him they’d just laugh taking the whole thing as a joke, pat his head and squeeze his cheeks annoyingly. Than they’d tell him to stop being so stubborn, Liam was well aware that’s exactly what they’d do if he said anything) some crashes were heard from the living room and suddenly the room was filled with a bountiful Louis Tomlinson who looked happier than ever carrying a bag of goodies.

Liam would later deny it but his face easily split into a wide grin upon seeing Louis enter the room and jump on the bed. Harry made a mental note to tease the boy endlessly later about it.

“Have you all missed me terribly?” Louis grinned cheekily which Liam could only laugh at and buried himself closer to Harry in attempt to hide his embarrassment.

“Someone missed you, *cough* Liam *cough*” Zayn teased in the, oh most of subtle ways. Liam was going to have to remember to hide the older boy’s hairspray when he was completely better.

Louis just grinned easily at him causing Liam to flush a dark red and cooed, “Oh I missed you too Li Li,”

Liam rolled his eyes trying to savour any dignity he had left, “Where were you anyway?”

Louis grinned, “I went shopping and I had to make a few phone calls. I’ve been neglecting my dear mother for a few days and your adorable mommy rang me to make sure you were still alive,”

Liam flushed if possible even more, of course his mother rang Louis (actually he wasn’t entirely sure why she was so insistent to ring Louis and not Paul but whatever his head hurt to think about that). He’d have to have another talk with her next time he was home to remind her that some stories of his childhood are not meant to be retold around certain band members and neither are embarrassing weaknesses that she found endearing but could be used against him in the wrong hands.  Neither of them were funny and Liam still couldn’t get the boys to forget how if you draw slow circles on his back he turns all pliant and sleepy. Certainly not exactly dignifying for someone whose supposed to be known as ‘Daddy Direction’.

“I got you every single Disney movie the store had along with food for when you’re sick and food for when you’re feeling better and the whole Keeping up with the Kardashian series because don’t lie to me, I know you secretly love it, you too Niall,” Louis added when the blonde started to snort with laughter.

Liam looked at the massive pile of DVDs Louis had, surely it was enough to open his own rental store. Liam was honestly touched by the gesture and it was now just another reason to add why Louis Tomlinson was the perfect specimen of a human being and shouldn’t be allowed to ruin Liam’s life like this. Especially when he still wasn’t well enough to fight it off.

“Thanks Lou, you didn’t have to,” He said far more timidly then he would have liked causing Harry to snicker next to him.

“Don’t be silly, only the best for you, now I want to watch 100 and one Dalmatians and then aristocrats,” Louis said bossily and started to assemble the room the way he liked it, always taking over whenever he saw fit.

One hour later they were watching the Dalmatians, Liam tucked carefully under Louis arm with Harry curled up to his side (he’d fallen asleep rather quickly and Liam said they’d wake him up for the aristocrats because of his strange obsession with felines but Louis said it would be funnier to let him sleep) Zayn perched on the chair and Niall at the foot of the bed.

It wasn’t long before Zayn too fell asleep (unsurprisingly) and Niall decided he needed food and wondered off else where to find himself a feast.

Louis and Liam were the only ones awake as the puppy movie played, and Liam hadn’t really felt this content in weeks because not only had Louis made the effort to choose a movie he thought he would really like he was safely in the eldest arms. Wrapped in Louis he was safe and protected, and god Louis smelt good.

Why did things have to be so, complicated?

Slowly Louis started to draw circles on Liam’s back and he curled himself more into the older boy, content but risking sleep to intrude on him at any moment. He didn’t want to miss this almost perfect moment with sleep so he started to talk.

“Thank you for looking after me,” He said almost a whisper, whether it was not to startle Zayn or Harry, or because he was just plain embarrassed he wasn’t sure, but Louis managed to just catch it.

“Stop thanking me, you don’t need to thank me,” Louis chuckled, “It was no problem.”

“It was a little bit of a problem,” Liam muttered.

“You’re never a problem,”

Liam smiled, “I don’t like being sick,” he confessed.

“You don’t say?” Louis teased in mock outrage, “I would have never have guessed after you hid it from us and tried to convince everyone you were well.”

Liam smacked him lightly on the chest, “Shut up.”

Louis grinned pulling him in closer, “It’s okay. I like looking after you, you’re cute.”

Liam blushed, “I don’t want to be cute,”

“But you are,”

“Shut up.”

“I like taking care of you for once, you’re always taking care of everyone,”

“It’s my job,” Liam replied like it was obvious, “I take care of you boys.”

“Just because the fans nicknamed you daddy direction doesn’t mean you always have to be,” Louis frowned.

Liam just shrugged and began playing with the buttons on Louis shirt, “I don’t mind.”

Louis sighed ruffling Liams hair, “You’re so retarded sometimes Li,”

“And you’re not?”

“Ouch!” Louis held his heart like he had been shot, “That really, truly hurt. Clearly I am the most responsible and best looking out of the band.”

Liam laughed, “Of course.”

Louis just grinned at him, still drawing circles on his back and Liam locked eyes with the boy. The boy who had been looking after him like if he stopped he’d die. The boy who risked his own health for him. The boy who was up at 3am in the morning to make him feel better after a night mare. The boy with perfectly bronzed skin and perfect lips and mesmerizing eyes.

The boy Liam realised he was actually kind of in love with.

“Liam?”

Liam snapped back into reality when he heard Louis say his name having zoned out to simply stare at the boy holding him.

“Yea?” he asked.

“Can I tell you something, and you promise not to freak out?” Louis asked, bitting his lips nervously.

“Anything,” Liam swallowed hard.

There was a silence where Louis simply stared those amazing blue eyes directly into Liam’s soul and suddenly he hadn’t ever felt more vulnerable than in this moment.

The elder leant in closer faces practically touching when Louis whispered, “I think I love you.”

Liam froze, paralysed and unable to move because did Louis Tomlinson just say that and fuck he wanted to jump up and down and scream or dosomething, anything but suddenly his limbs decided that they didn’t actually want to function properly anymore.

He barely had time to register the fact that Louis was lightly brushing their lips together in a soft passionate kiss and Liam wanted to melt into his arms and just never return to the real world ever again because, man this was so much better.

When Louis pulled apart and grinned shyly at Liam it was than the younger boy thought about how awful he must look for being sick for so long. He was practically mortified when he realised he was still covered in red spots and just thank god he had brushed his teeth this morning.

“Liam?” Louis asked hesitantly.

“I love you too,” he blurted in a panic in case Louis thought his hesitation was anything but paralysed amazement and blushed furiously again. Louis could make him blush ridiculously easy.

Louis smiled and held Liam closer to him, settling down on the bed again, “Good, that could have been awkward otherwise,” he chuckled.

Liam smiled, looking up at Louis slowly, “does this mean…?”

“It means when your all better I’m going to take you on a date and court you all proper like and then ask you to be my boyfriend because I’m a gentlemen of all sorts,” Louis said seriously and Liam giggled like a 12 year old school girl but he did it fucking shamelessly because yes. This is actually happening to him.

“Cool,” was all Liam could manage through his extremely wide grin.

“And I love you and all, but we’ll leave kissing and sexy time until your better. You’re still my patient for now Li bear,” Louis teased.

Liam rolled his eyes but cuddled up to Louis (his boyfriend?) none the less, completely content with staying in Louis arms for the rest of his natural life.

It was safe to say however, Liam’s recovery couldn’t come soon enough.

_4 weeks later_

“I swear to god Harry you take one more chip off my plate and I will bite off one of your fingers, and that is not a threat it is a goddamn promise,” Niall growled dangerously low at the younger boy who simply pouted at the blonde.

“You have to learn to share,” Harry stuck his tongue out but didn’t go for another chip, choosing rather to fold his arms over his chest in such a matter a five year old would when they know they’ve lost a fight.

“I most certainly do not need to share with you,” Niall replied Irish accent think and final as he moved his plate away from the boy.

Liam smiled at the scene taking place in front of him while resting his head against Louis – his boyfriends, chest letting the soothing motion of the bus lure him into a content relaxation. Niall and Harry were still bickering at the table while Zayn was discreetly taking chips from the younger when he was too preoccupied, while Louis and Liam were sprawled out on the tiny couch. It had been four weeks since he’d been sick, recovering nicely with only one chicken pox scar on his left arm but Niall had been telling people it was some heroic battle scar when he saved a cat from a fire. It had also been four weeks since him and Louis had gotten together, four weeks full of stolen kisses and secret glances across the room and multiple fucks in small bunks and hotel beds. Sure it wasn’t the most conventional of relationships and it certainly wasn’t going to be easy, but Liam couldn’t remember ever in his life being this happy. So screw consequences and realism, he was going to marry this boy one day.

Louis smiled down at him, running fingers slowly across his back and Liam was suddenly in real danger of falling asleep but he honestly didn’t mind. Louis had that effect on him, he was practically putty in the older boys hands. It was weird giving up control and handing it to Louis, or even one of the other boys or Paul, but since being ill they’d all taken as much stress off the boy as possible. They’d tried to do it slowly, hoping he wouldn’t notice but he wasn’t retarded and could tell when they didn’t want him worrying about things or took certain decisions out of his control. It was a bit worrying at first and usually he would be mad, he liked having control and he liked worrying. He was Daddy Direction, it was his job. But now he had Louis, and suddenly not everything was his job anymore. The moment it looked like things were piling up too much Louis would take him away from the situation. He’d whisper comforting words in his ear or wrap arms tightly around his middle or kiss him passionately and roughly against a wall. If none of that worked he’d just pin the older down and cover his face in wet slobbery kisses while attacking his sensitive sides until the younger boy promised to drop it and stop worrying. That had only happened twice though and the first he was caught off guard and the second Louis had gotten Harry and Zayn to pin him so he had no chance of escape, but he certainly wasn’t going to let it happen again.

Suddenly because of Louis he was letting people take care of him and he didn’t worry as much. He let Louis hold him while he slept and cuddle him if he got home sick. He let Zayn fuss over Harry when he wasn’t paying attention and Paul take over when Niall got a little bit too grumpy. All the things that usually Liam would take care of and worry himself sick over were no longer such an issue and if he did his band members would just tell him to relax anyway. Control had always been a big issue for Liam and this letting go was kind of worth it if it meant he could be with Louis.

Of course it wasn’t all that positive, it seemed like this was just an excuse for all the boys to not only tease him endlessly about getting a children’s disease and his relationship with Louis, but there protectiveness of him seemed to reach a new high. He could see the way they worried about him, made sure he was looking after himself and making sure he told them if he wasn’t feeling great. He wanted to protest, remind them he is a big boy and could look after himself but when he had he’d only be reminded countless times that he wasn’t actually that good at determining good health and to shut the hell up and just take it because it’s not like they were going to stop worrying about him after this. Liam had given up protesting, he probably deserved it anyway after all the molly coddling he’d put them through.

Unfortunately, all good moments like this where Liam is happy enough to let Niall and Harry continue to bicker while he falls asleep on Louis have to come to an abrupt end. This one does by Liam letting out a sneeze that had been tickling his nose for a while silencing the whole bus.

The bus suddenly goes quiet and four pairs of eyes are on him, Liam just manages to roll his eyes before there all trying to talk over each other,

“Are you okay?”

“How long have you been feeling poorly?”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“Do you have a headache?”

“Do you think it could be allergies?”

“Jesus Christ Liam you have the immune system of a three year old,”

Liam took a little offence at that last one that Zayn shot at him, his immune system was better than that, “I’m fine guys!” he said untangling himself from Louis trying to swat the boys hands away from his forehead and neck as they tried to grope him, “I just sneezed,”

They all looked at him sceptically, frowning, “Liam,” Harry warned.

“I swear!” he said defensively, “You can even take my temperature if you’d like,” he offered if it was going to settle their minds.

That seemed to makes them ease up a little, but Louis was still frowning slightly, clearly worried. He rested the back of his hand gently on Liam’s forehead and Liam allowed him to assess the temperature, “You don’t feel warm,” he said slowly.

“See!” Liam pointed out.

Zayn just rolled his eyes laughing and that seemed to be enough for Niall and Harry as they went back to bickering about food, Louis however was still unconvinced, “You’re sure your fine?”

“Well there is one thing I need,” Liam said a cheeky grin on his face.

“What?” Louis asked.

“A kiss,” He smiled.

As cheesy as it was Louis just smiled with him, “Your such a loser,” He replied but pulled him in nonetheless, “My loser though.”

“No PDA on the bus I swear to god this is worse than Niall!” A frantic Harry cried as the boys heard something that suspiciously sounded like someone banging there head on the table countless times.

Life was good.


End file.
